{"id":586962,"date":"2024-06-11T08:16:42","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=586962"},"modified":"2024-06-11T08:16:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:16:42","slug":"can-sam-williamson-lead-australian-men-to-medley-relay-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/can-sam-williamson-lead-australian-men-to-medley-relay-podium\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Sam Williamson Lead Australian Men to Medley Relay Podium?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can Sam Williamson Lead Australian Men to Medley Relay Podium?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before last July, Australia had not captured a medal in the men’s 400 medley relay at either an Olympics or World Championships in seven years. It looked like that drought would continue when the Aussies were in fifth place at the halfway point of the final at the Fukuoka World Championships. But then,\u00a0Matt Temple<\/strong> split 50.10 on butterfly to move into fourth place, and the electric\u00a0Kyle Chalmers<\/strong> came home in 46.89, one-and-a-half seconds faster than French anchor Hadrien Salvan<\/strong>, as Chalmers pulled the Aussies into bronze-medal position by two tenths.<\/p>\n

Can the men in the gold caps pull off another such finish on the Olympic level? That will be a challenge for sure: China almost broke the world record<\/a> at last year’s Asian Games<\/a> while the Americans, who prevailed at last year’s World Championships<\/a>, have never lost this race at the Olympics. Those two teams are certainly considered the gold-medal favorites.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Great Britain won silver behind the U.S. at the last two Olympics, and world-record-holding breaststroker Adam Peaty<\/strong> is returning to top form. France will be buoyed by the home crowd in Paris, with world champion\u00a0Maxime Grousset<\/strong> likely to swim the butterfly leg and\u00a0Leon Marchand<\/strong> on breaststroke.<\/p>\n

The key to Australia knocking off one of these teams for a podium finish is staying close enough to allow Temple and Chalmers to finish strong, just like they did in Fukuoka. But now, the team has a new weapon to deploy on the second leg of the race:\u00a0Sam Williamson<\/strong>, a 26-year-old in the midst of the finest year of his career.<\/p>\n

Williamson first jumped onto the Australian senior-level team in 2022, winning four medals at the Commonwealth Games, but he fully broke out at this February’s World Championships by edging\u00a0Nicolo Martinenghi<\/strong> and\u00a0Nic Fink<\/strong> for 50 breaststroke gold, his time of 26.32 making him the fourth-fastest performer in history. Now, Williamson has raised his game to excel at the 100-meter event as well.<\/p>\n

Williamson qualified for his first Olympic team Monday by winning the 100 breast at Australian Trials in 58.80<\/a>, not far off Brenton Rickard’s<\/strong> 15-year-old national record of 58.58 (from the polyurethane-suit era) and under Peaty’s 2018 All-Comer record (58.84). That speed provides a huge upgrade on what\u00a0Zac Stubblety-Cook<\/strong>, the 2021 Olympic champion in the 200 breast and former world-record holder in the event, can provide in the 100. Stubblety-Cook ended up third in the event at Trials, just behind\u00a0Joshua Yong<\/strong> (59.48).<\/p>\n

\"\"

Isaac Cooper is likely to handle the backstroke leg on the Australian men’s medley relay in Paris — Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)<\/p><\/div>\n

Williamson, Temple and Chalmers make three-fourths of an elite medley relay. Backstroke, though? Still a question.\u00a0Isaac Cooper<\/strong>, who won the world title in the 50 back this year, was the winner of the event at Australian Trials<\/a> Tuesday, but his time of 53.46 is nowhere close to the elite backstrokers leading off for other countries. In comparison, the USA’s Ryan Murphy<\/strong> and China’s\u00a0Xu Jiayu<\/strong> both went 52.0s last year while Great Britain’s\u00a0Ollie Morgan<\/strong> swam a national-record mark of 52.70 earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Here is the current landscape of the men’s medley relay, with times from 2023 and 2024 considered. All of China’s top swimmers have already qualified for the Olympics, but the American lineup could shift based on the results of next week’s U.S. Olympic Trials<\/a>. The French lineup is less clear and will be added to this analysis following their selection meet.<\/p>\n