Aussie Speed Sister Bronte Campbell Back On Deck For 2023 Sydney Open and UNISPORT Nationals

BACK IN THE FAST LANE: Two-time Olympic gold medallist Bronte Campbell will be in action at the Sydney Open and UNISPORT Nationals. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

Bronte Campbell Back On Deck For 2023 Sydney Open and UNISPORT Nationals

Bronte Campbell, the younger half of Australian swimming’s legendary sisters of speed, will spend around 24 seconds in the water racing at the famed Sydney Olympic Pool on Friday morning.

The three-day Sydney Open and UNISPORT Nationals competition, will be the start of what Campbell hopes will take her to a fourth Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 – a meet that will see many of the top swimmers representing their universities.

Bronte’s racing return comes a month after sister Cate Campbell’s successful comeback at the Australian Championships on the Gold Coast as she chases a record fifth Olympics.

GOLD COAST GOLD: Bronte Campbell greets the judge after winning the 100m freestyle at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

Turning 29 on May 13, Bronte has made the commitment under renown Olympic gold medal coach Shannon Rollason – her training program shared between the AIS pool in Canberra and at the Cranbrook School in Sydney’s eastern suburbs – where the two-time Olympic relay gold medallist has settled in recent years.

Rollason is the man who took Jodie Henry to Olympic gold in the 100m freestyle in Athens and who had had successful coaching roles as the AIS head coach as well as Head Coaching positions in Denmark and Edinburgh.

He is now NSW Swimming Head Coach at the ACT Performance Centre in Canberra, run in conjunction with Swimming NSW and the ACT Academy of Sport.

Campbell hasn’t raced since playing a staring role in Australia’s gold medal-winning 4x100m freestyle team at the Tokyo Olympics inn 2021 – her second Games relay gold after Rio in 2016.

This weekend’s 2023 Sydney Open and UNISPORT Nationals Swim Meet at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre will feature no fewer than seven Olympic gold medallists and five Paralympic gold medallists as Australia’s elite swimmers prepare for this year’s World Championships.

Campbell (Cruiz, ACT) will make her long-awaited competition comeback alongside gold-medal-winning Tokyo teammates, Marion SA pair Meg Harris and Madi Wilson in the 50m freestyle heats. Campbell will be making every post a winner, unavailable for the finals due two-time Olympian David McKeon’s wedding – which will see a host of Australian swimmers and coaches in attendance.

Campbell, Harris and Wilson will be joined by individual Olympic champions Kaylee McKeown (Griffith University, QLD), Zac Stubblety-Cook (Chandler, QLD), Kyle Chalmers (Marion, SA) and Mack Horton (Griffith University, QLD).

It will be the final hit out for many of Australia’s elite swimmers as they put the finishing touches to their World Championship Trials preparations, alongside a strong New Zealand contingent, led by world-class middle-distance freestyler Erika Fairweather (Neptune, NZ) who will contest the 100, 200, 400 and 800m freestyle.

Fairweather will re-ignite her rivalry with Australia’s World Short Course star Lani Pallister (Griffith University, QLD) following previous tussles in the World Juniors and in the absence of Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus(St Peters Western, QLD), who will by-pass this meet as she prepares for the World Trials.

The Melbourne Sports And Aquatic Centre will play host to the six-day Australian Trials Meet (June 13-18) for the World Championships in Fukuoka, JPN (August 14-30).

The Sydney Open Meet will also feature already selected members of Australia’s World Championship Para Swim Team as they prepare for the World Championships in Manchester (July 31-August 6) – spearheaded by Paralympic gold medallists Lakeisha Patterson, Brenden Hall and Rachael Watson who will race under the University of Queensland banner, Rowan Crothers (Yeronga Park, QLD) and Will Martin (Chandler, QLD).

NEC Chris Mooney Tom Fraser Holmes Kyle Chalmers Ian Thorpe Shannon Rollason

MASTER COACH: Shannon Rollason on deck with fellow Olympic gold medal coach Chris Mooney and with an all-star cast of on-lookers. (L:-R) Tom Fraser-Holmes, Kyle Chalmers and Ian Thorpe. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).

For McKeown (Griffith University, QLD) the meet will see her return to the pool which saw her set the 200m backstroke world record at the NSW State Championships in March and her three-gold medal haul in the 100m backstroke, 200m breaststroke and 200 IM at last month’s Australian Championships on the Gold Coast.

McKeown will line up in the 100 and 200m backstroke and the 200 and 400IM as she juggles her versatility, which has not only seen her lower her backstroke times but also record personal bests in both breaststroke, freestyle and the 200 IM.

Chalmers, who withheld the challenges of the next generation at the Australian Championships, will take on one of those youngsters when he lines up against fellow Commonwealth Games teammates Flynn Southam (Bond, QLD) and Will Yang (SOPAC, NSW) in the 100 and 200m freestyles.

Stubblety-Cook, the Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion and world record holder in the 200m breaststroke, will limit his appearance to his main event while 2016 Olympic champion Horton will also just contest his main event, the 400m freestyle.

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