Barely an hour after the Australian swim team had completed a successful meet at the Paris Olympics, the Dolphins head coach, Rohan Taylor, was already looking to the future. “We’ll go back to the drawing board,” he said on the pool deck. “Performance by design” is one of his often-repeated mantras. So relentless is the pursuit of gold that the following morning, the Dolphins held a debriefing session to reflect on improvements ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
In the year that followed, Australia’s swim stars have enjoyed time away from the pool. Some retired – the nation’s most successful Olympian of all time, Emma McKeon, brought the curtain down on her glittering career, and had a local pool named in her honour. Some tried their hand at other activities – 50m and 100m freestyle star Shayna Jack featured on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!, while middle-distance titan Ariarne Titmus is still out of the water, recently on commentary duties at the Australian swimming trials.
But the week ahead will offer the first glimpses of the Dolphins’ work at the drawing board, as the swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships begin in Singapore on Sunday. The world titles in the year following an Olympics are always an unusual meet; some stars are absent, others have their focus elsewhere. But as squads around the world begin to build towards the 2028 Games, the meet will provide an helpful indicator of early progress.
Australia’s squad is headlined by Olympic stalwarts Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan. Both spoke recently about the challenges they faced navigating post-Paris life, but each will be a favourite in several events following their returns to the pool. McKeown is expected to contest the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke; there is every chance she could win all three, repeating a feat from the 2024 world titles. O’Callaghan, meanwhile, will be favourite in the 200m freestyle and out for redemption in the 100m freestyle after a surprise fourth-place finish in Paris.
Elsewhere in the women’s field, Lani Pallister has been in scorching form – she broke the Australian record for the 800m freestyle at trials, and also won the 400m and 1500m races. Just 16, Sienna Toohey will be the youngest member of the Dolphins squad – big things have been tipped for the breaststroke prodigy since she broke Leisel Jones’s 100m age-group record, which had stood for more than two decades.
On the men’s side of competition, 50m freestyle Olympic champion Cameron McEvoy will make a record seventh world championship appearance and be the favourite in the one-lap event, while veteran freestyle dynamo Kyle Chalmers has been in resurgent form. Middle distance freestyler Sam Short had a disappointing Paris Olympics, but will be hoping to bounce back in Singapore.
Australia is also a perennial powerhouse in the relay disciplines – finishing off the podium in just one of the seven relays in Paris – and that is not expected to change in Singapore. Australia’s depth in the women’s 100m freestyle relay is particularly impressive; at the recent trials in Adelaide, all eight swimmers in the final went under the qualifying time for the world titles (O’Callaghan and Olivia Wunsch will contest the individual event, as the fastest qualifiers). Australia have lost that world relay crown just once in the past decade, and held the Olympic gold since 2012; an impressive era of dominance that looks set to continue – although not without a fight from the United States.
With one eye towards the 2028 Olympics, the world championships will also offer an assessment of competing nations’ strength across each stroke’s 50m splash and dash event. While the 50m is always contested across freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly at the world titles, until now the Olympics have only featured the freestyle.
That will change in Los Angeles, with six additional gold medals up for grabs. The additions bode well for Australia, with a number of potential prospects. McKeown is the world record holder in the women’s 50m backstroke, while Isaac Cooper is the defending world champion in the men’s backstroke.
Another noteworthy LA 2028 announcement was made earlier this month, with the preliminary schedule for the Games featuring the swim meet in the second week. This is unusual. For some time, swimming has been one of the first sports off the blocks and typically provides a strong start for Australia on the medal tally. Teams will therefore be required to manage the distraction of a week of Olympic action before the swimming begins.
The Dolphins will enter the meet in Singapore buoyed by the success of their open water peers. Moesha Johnson had a remarkable event last week, winning the women’s 10km and 5km events – a first for Australia – and earning bronze in the 3km knock-out event, while Kyle Lee was third for Australia in the men’s 10km. Johnson will be back in action in the pool, having also qualified for the 800m and 1500m.
There are now less than three years until the 2028 Olympics begin. For the Australian Dolphins, the road to Los Angeles may have started only a day after the Paris meet wrapped up. But the hard work begins now – from the drawing board to the pool once more.
