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Posted: 2024-06-25 02:26:11

For a very long time, one of the best responses to the question "what makes a good swimming team" was, "are they American?" — and for good reason. 

Team USA has topped the medal table in the pool in nine of the past 10 Olympic Games and in all but three of the 19 Olympics since WWII.

In one of those three Olympics — the boycotted Moscow Games of 1980 — the US didn't even send a team which, given America's men won every single event bar one at the 1976 Games in Montreal — 11 of the 12 in world record time — to win 27 out of a total of 39 medals, was disappointing.

Only Scottish great David Wilkie broke the American hegemony in Montreal by winning the 200m breaststroke.

Needless to say, the USA is always incredibly strong.

And all the indications from this year's trials, held inside the Indianapolis Colt's NFL team's stadium, is that Paris will be no different.

The stage has well and truly been set for a battle extraordinaire at the Paris La Défence Arena.

The Americans may have watched the rapid times being swum at the Australian Trials in Brisbane — particularly from the women — the week before their own trials began with a mixture of fascination and impending doom.

To witness Ariarne Titmus swimming the second fastest 400m freestyle time in history, before crashing through the pre-existing 200m mark in a devastating display of power and poise was ominous enough — not least that she did so ahead of St Peters Western teammate Mollie O'Callaghan, whose own swim was also under the previous world record.

They would have also looked at Kaylee McKeown with increasing concern as the 22-year-old Queenslander flirted with three world records in as many events, coming close enough to have the record keepers taking the lid off their pens before ultimately falling just short.

The gauntlet had been thrown down.

And some of America's best picked it up and threw it right back.

Records fall in Indianapolis

The Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis

The US swimming trials smashed attendance records.(AP Photo: Michael Conroy)

Records fell in and out the pool at the NFL stadium — the largest venue to ever hold the US trials.

A record 20,689 fans flocked through the gates on the first night to enjoy the spectacle of swimming in such a cavernous venue, a record that got pushed up to 22,209.

For the record, Swimming Australia said more than 16,700 fans came through the gates in the admittedly (much) smaller Brisbane Aquatic Centre over 12 sessions of racing in Queensland.

Overall, more than 285,000 spectators witnessed the US competition, the most to ever attend a trials event.

And those masses of fans were treated to some sumptuous swimming.

Gretchen Walsh broke the 100m butterfly world record on night one in the semifinals, before qualifying by winning the final the following night.

Regan Smith, meanwhile, backed up an American record in the semifinals by smashing McKeown's world record by 0.2 seconds in the final

Michael Phelps (with a prompt from NBC) rekindles war of words with Australia

Just to add to the lengthy history between the two nations in the pool, the USA dug up some old comments from Cate Campbell to stoke the fire.

At the 2023 World Championships, Campbell said "it is just so much sweeter beating America" and that not hearing the Star Spangled Banner made her incredibly happy.

She even took aim at the USA's "infernal cowbell" and "U-S-A" chant, although other members of the team did backtrack and say not everyone felt like that on the Australian team.

After being shown her comments for the first time during NBC's coverage of the USA trials, Phelps, arguably the greatest swimmer of all time, said: "I appreciate your comments, Cate," with a wry smile. 

"If somebody said that to me, I would lose it," he added. 

"I would literally make them eat every word they just said about me. Because people have done it — Chad Le Clos, [Ian] Thorpe, you guys have all talked shit about me. And I had the last laugh. 

"So for the Americans, if you see what I just saw … I would watch that thing every single day to give me that little extra bit of just mmph.

"The good news is that the Olympics will be here shortly, and we'll be able to see what the results are."

Campbell later said she meant no offence, and told Channel 9 as much in a far more lighthearted manner this week.

"It is on, but it is always on," Campbell said.

"It's a little bit of a David vs Goliath story. We're up against a country of 350 million people, there's 27 million people in Australia, so it is so satisfying when we get up over the big dogs.

"Australia loves being the underdog, we thrive on that, maybe the Americans thrive on the fire in their belly?"

The USA won 11 gold medals to Australia's nine in Tokyo, extending their run of victories over Australia and, although both teams might struggle to win that many again in Paris, both teams remain incredibly strong.

Here's how the two squads match up.

Arnie vs the legend

Ariarne Titmus smiles next to Katie Ledecky

Ariarne Titmus (right) broke the world record in Fukuoka, beating Katie Ledecky by over three seconds.(Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)

Easily the biggest and most storied rivalry in women's swimming will get another chapter written in Paris, with Katie Ledecky booking her spot in two head-to-head events against Ariarne Titmus, the 400m and 800m freestyle.

In the 400m free, the 27-year-old, seven-time Olympic gold medallist swam 3:58.35, the 14th-fastest in history.

However, that was substantially slower than what Titmus managed on an electrifying first night in Brisbane.

The American did flirt with world record pace for the first three lengths, but markedly dropped off over the remaining distance.

Ledecky also qualified comfortably in the 800m free, which she hopes to win a record fourth Games in a row.

She is currently one of only four swimmers to win three consecutive Olympic titles in the same event.

Ledecky has recorded the 29 fastest times in history in the event.

The American phenom also qualified in the 1,500m free, looking to defend the title she won in Tokyo. She is odds-on to do so.

Australia's own 200m free battle

Despite winning the event at US Trials, Ledecky will not swim the 200m free in Paris.

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