Latest news with #AustralianSwimming
ABC News
a day ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Teenager Sienna Toohey shines at the Australian Swimming Trials with 100m breaststroke final win
Australian swimming has a new young star: Sienna Toohey. The 16-year-old booked her ticket to the World Championships in Singapore next month by beating Australia's best women in the 100m breaststroke final at the Australian Swimming Trials in Adelaide. Her time of 1:06.55 smashed her personal best. Toohey broke down immediately after the race in an interview. "I was just so nervous, but I'm just so happy that I've done it now," she said. "It's a lot. "I've been doing very hard training — more than I've ever done before so I'm very happy that it's paid off." Toohey said she had the toughest week of training in her life earlier in the year with the national squad. "It (winning) was definitely a relief if anything because spending time away from family for that long, it's the hardest it's ever been for me," she said. "Because I love my dad and my brother so much, it was very hard not having them while I was doing that tough training." The upside was training alongside her idols. "These were people I was watching two years ago saying I want to be just like them, so it was very surreal being in a hotel room with them, eating lunch and dinner," she said. In April, Toohey broke breaststroke legend Hayley Lewis's record for 16-year-old girls. "After nationals this year, she sent me a video the night after I broke her 100 record, just congratulating me," she said. "It meant a lot. Just getting something personalised from her. And her just reaching out and telling me to keep going and that things can happen when you're a young age. It was definitely inspiring." Toohey said she only started swimming because she wanted to play water polo. "But my parents told me I couldn't do water polo if I didn't swim," she said. "It got to the point where I had to choose swimming or water polo, obviously I chose swimming, it was the right choice." In second place was Ella Ramsay who will add the 100m to her Singapore dance card after already qualifying for the 200m individual medley on the first night of the trials. She was asked what advice she has for Toohey. "To keep following your dreams I'd say," Ramsay said. "Just to see the pure emotion and relief Sienna had after her race, I definitely can relate to that because I had that this time last year when I made the Olympic team." Meanwhile, multiple Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown is winning, but struggling. After she was disqualified, then reinstated, on day one of the trials, she followed up with a win in the 100m backstroke, but said she was far from happy. "Yesterday was yesterday, today is today, can't really dwell on the past, that's the sport," she said. "This week's just not my week, but I've gotta do my job and make my team." She said she wasn't satisfied with her winning time of 57.71 — 0.38seconds outside her personal best which was the previous world record. Even so, it's the third fastest time of the year, behind her own win in the national championships earlier in April, and world record holder, Regan Smith in May. "I mean it's pretty simple you want to swim fast," she said. "You just want to go out hard and come back hard and hope for a good time on the wall and it just wasn't there tonight." On Monday, Alexandria Perkins won the women's 100m butterfly final and on Tuesday she beat her own personal best in the heats of the women's 50m butterfly in the morning, setting an all comers record before beating it again, winning the night's final. "I feel like I've held myself to a really high standard and I know the way I train so I can take confidence from that," she said. "I feel like it's maybe taken a few years to translate the way I'm training to the way I'm racing. So, I'm finally feeling I'm achieving that. "It's very exciting, it's also scary because you don't know when it's going to stop. "You can't put a limit on it, you never really know." In Singapore, she will come up against US 100m butterfly world record holder, Gretchen Walsh, after coming third against her in the 50m and 100m butterfly finals at the World Short Course Championships in Budapest last year. "You don't want to be next to her because you can get stuck in her wash a bit because she's just so damned fast," she said. "But I think it's incredible what she's doing for the sport, but hopefully she'll drag all the flyers along with her." Paralympic star Alexa Leary blitzed her field, coming within .01 seconds of her world record in the S950m freestyle final, but said she was glad she didn't break it. "The big show and the big game is Singapore. For this one I was just really focused on what my coach was focused on with all my skills and drills," she said. "I'm strong in the mental game so I've got this in Singapore, I've got it." In other results, Edward Sommerville smashed his personal best by over two-and-a-half seconds winning the men's 200m freestyle final in a time of 1:44.93 — comfortably under the World Championships qualifying time. Sam Short came second to back up his win in the 400m on night one. Olympic veteran Matthew Temple won the men's 100m butterfly final to qualify for Singapore alongside Jesse Coleman in second place.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Australian Swimming Trials for World Aquatics Championships begin in Adelaide
Coming off an outstanding Olympic performance when the Dolphins won a collective seven golds, nine silvers and three bronze medals, next month's World Aquatic Championships present the next chance for the team to take on the might of the United States and maintain Australia's place as one of the world's leading swimming nations. However, the Dolphins will be without some big names even before the Australian Swimming Trials begin in Adelaide on Monday. Dual Paris gold medallist and 400m freestyle world record holder Ariarne Titmus is taking the year off swimming. Emma McKeon, Australia's most successful Olympian, has retired. Cate Campbell is long gone, while her sister Bronte is yet to decide on her future but will not be swimming in Adelaide. There have been other retirements, including Tokyo and Paris gold medallist Brianna Throssell, world championship gold medal-winning breaststroker Matt Wilson, and breaststrokers Chelsea Hodges and Jenna Strauch. With injuries to rising star Iona Anderson (backstroke) and the recent national 50m and 100m breaststroke champion Sam Williamson, the Dolphins team that goes to the World Championships in many ways will represent a changing of the guard. Head coach Rohan Taylor said he is as interested as anyone to see how his squad will shape up. "There's a number of athletes who have taken a good extended break after Paris and just want to get back on and see where they're at," he said. "I think they'll learn a lot about themselves. "There's a lot of openings for some of the young swimmers that will jump into those events, and we'll get some new blood on to the team and that'll be their first international experience. "For me, I just want to sit back and see where we're at after Worlds, and what we need to do to keep moving forwards. "I think we've got a really core group of athletes who are experienced and who will carry us through to LA." Taylor said his coaches are going to do everything they can to support the established stars who have committed to swimming at the 2028 LA Olympics. "Our main goal is that the performances at trials are repeated or improved on at the World Championships," Taylor said. "So, we want to see athletes qualify for the team and when they compete again in six weeks, they're swimming as fast or faster. We want that repeat-ability," he said. With Australia going through a golden era in swimming, Taylor believes the Australian public will be keenly watching the events in Adelaide over the next week and then the World Championships. "I think this group of athletes and coaches have really earned the right to have attention and focus on them," he said. Despite several accomplished stars not competing this week, there is still plenty of star power in Adelaide. Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O'Callaghan and Cam McEvoy all showed they were a class above their peers in their respective events at April's National Championships, despite being in the middle of solid training blocks. O'Callaghan was peerless taking out the 100m-200m double at the National Championships. McEvoy's 21.48 at the National Championships was the third fastest time in the world this year, which he credited to work on his starts and points to a potentially faster time in Adelaide this week. Kyle Chalmers, gold medallist in the 100m freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics, swam the second-fastest time in the world this year for the 100m freestyle in Norway and a personal best in the 50m freestyle at a meet in Sweden in April. "There's a lot that I still want to achieve and have success over the next few years and to be able to go to a fourth Olympics in LA would be amazing," Chalmers said. "My fiancée is going to make a comeback to swimming as well, and our goal is to be able to go to that Olympics together and have our daughter in the stands watching us, which I think is, yeah, going to be pretty special if we're able to do that." The star of the Paris Paralympics, dual gold-medallist Alexa Leary, said she could not wait for the trials to begin. "I just know it's show time. I just love it," she said. "Here's just you know, a bit of a warm-up. I'm still going to give it to them in the water, but I've just got to make it a little bit of a warm-up, big show-time in Singapore." Other names to watch out for include the men's distance swimmers Elijah Winnington, Samuel Short, and rising 1500m swimmer Benjamin Goedemans. Victorian Tara Kinder and Queenslander Ella Ramsay, both 20, enjoyed breakout performances at the National Championships. Kinder claimed the 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley, while Ramsay won the 100m backstroke and 400m individual medley.
Daily Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Telegraph
James Magnussen's ominous warning as staggering transformation comes to light
Don't miss out on the headlines from Swimming. Followed categories will be added to My News. Australian swimming star James Magnussen has sent a warning to the rest of the world: get on board or be at risk of missing out. Magnussen has caused quite the stir in the swimming community with his decision to join the Enhanced Games, telling The Guardian that he 'feels 18 again' after taking testosterone, peptides and banned drugs, including BPC-157, CJC-1295 and the growth hormone ipamorelin. Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer. His hopes of winning $US1 million may have already gone up in flames, with Greek Olympian Kristian Gkolomeev beating the world record held by Cesar Cielo on his way to the top prize, but Magnussen is still glad to have made the move to the drug-fuelled Games. You can watch Kristian Gkolomeev beating the world record in the player above. In fact, he warned in an interview with AAP that he will be just the first of many Australian athletes to join the event, which openly encourages athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs in a bid to win prize money. The event is not just isolated to swimming and will also include athletes across multiple sports such as track and field and weightlifting. Swimming will hold 100m and 50m freestyle events, along with 100m and 50m butterfly. Athletics events include the 100m and 100m and 110m hurdles. Weightlifters will compete in the snatch and clean & jerk disciplines. James Magnussen has shown off his insane transformation. Image: Enhanced Games James Magnussen at the Rio Olympics. Image: Adam Head 'The most common response I hear from current athletes is, if this all goes ahead the way we believe it will in the first year, then we're very interested to join,' Magnussen told AAP. 'Because the opportunity to set yourself up for life just isn't there at the moment in that swimming world. But it's very clear that opportunity is available with the Enhanced Games.' Magnussen is one of the faces of the Games along with Gkolomeev. Both men were followed by cameras in a documentary titled '50 Meters to History: The First Superhuman', which followed the pair in their bid to break the fastest record in swimming. Magnussen has his fair share of critics, with Olympic great Ariarne Titmus declaring his name is 'a bit mud' while Cam McEvoy, who won gold for Australia in the 50m freestyle at the Pairs Olympics, voiced his concerns in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald. 'It doesn't count in any way, shape or form when you take drugs or wear one of the banned suits, or both,' McEvoy told the Herald. James Magnussen is targeting breaking the 50m world record. 'It's got no relevance to Olympic or World Championship 50-metre comps, or to the international rankings around them.' Magnussen though told the publication that if he was McEvoy, he would see the opportunity to race in the Enhanced Games as a 'no-brainer'. 'If I was Cam, and I was going to be able to put a suit on and race for $US1 million – plus be paid as an athlete – for me, it would be a no-brainer,' Magnussen said. 'At this point for Cam, he sees it like a sideshow. If you stayed in the testing pool the whole time [by continually agreeing to take drug tests], then it shouldn't be an issue. It seems like a free hit.' However, McEvoy's concerns with the event went far beyond its legitimacy, with the 31-year-old also questioning the 'unknown potential cost' it will have on Magnussen's long-term health. 'I understand there are some measures being put in place around the safety of those athletes throughout this process,' he said. 'But there are long-term negative health effects associated with maximised PEDs and further still, a lot of unknowns around just how serious those effects are.' It is a point that Dr Naomi Speers, the director of research at Sport Integrity Australia, made in an interview with the Herald after Magnussen openly revealed the PEDs he had taken ahead of the Enhanced Games, which is set to debut in Las Vegas next May. 'We tried a few different things,' Magnussen told The Herald. 'The base of it was testosterone and then peptides. We used BPC-157, CJC-1295, ipamorelin and thymosin.' In the Enhanced Games documentary, his fiancée Rose's father Justin McEvoy said his 'main concern' was Magnussen's health. 'He definitely confirmed with me he was getting totally medically checked out,' McEvoy added. 'That turned me around. The fact he's healthy.' Magnussen went on to explain that he's getting blood tests and body scans once a month, while he also has his own dietician, strength and conditioning coach, doctor, endocrinologist and heart specialist. 'We've covered every base,' he added. Originally published as James Magnussen's ominous warning to sporting world as staggering transformation revealed
