Australia poke US bear to ramp up swimming rivalry for Olympic Games | Nicole Jeffery

cowl bells. The Australian Olympic swimmers could hear them in their sleep, and will certainly hear them in their waking hours in the Olympic pool in Paris, after the US-Australia rivalry flared up this week.

Comments made by former Australian sprint queen Cate Campbell last year about the sweetness of beating the US team and their “infernal cowbell” were the talk of the US swimming meets that ended in Indianapolis earlier this week.

Australia is not generally the focus for USA Swimming at its biggest showcase event, but Campbell’s comments were lifted by Olympic broadcaster NBC to add fuel to a fire that has been quietly smoldering for nearly a year since Australia defeated the US with the gold medal. at the world championships in Fukuoka. It was only the second time this had happened during a global showdown since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Prompted by Nine presenter Karl Stefanovic, Campbell described the Americans as sore losers (because the US ranks its medal count based on total medals – a competition it never loses due to its unrivaled depth – rather than gold medals like the rest of the world). She then criticized the US team for ringing a cowbell to send its athletes off to compete, and said she was glad she didn’t hear the Star Spangled Banner on opening night.

All this was said in jest, with tongue firmly in cheek, but tell that to Gary Hall Jr., who wrote an otherwise glowing article about Australia in the run-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, in which he happened to mention that he believed the U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay team would crush Australia “like guitars.” Context is the first casualty of sporting rivalry.

NBC commentator and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines said the U.S. team would use Campbell’s words — seriously or not — as extra motivation for Paris.

“The cowbells are sold out here,” Gaines joked. “I don’t think so [the rivalry] would be close to what it is today if it weren’t for Cate. I loved what she said. Sayings like that are just great because it gets everyone excited and more people watch swimming.

“Rivalry is important to Americans. It’s the epitome of sports attractiveness here, and we don’t really have much rivalry in swimming. When I was swimming, it was Russia, but now the Australian team is so good. That came about because of last summer, when Australia ran into America. Being beaten in the gold medal count got our swimmers excited.”

Will this be a major factor in Paris? “Once the fuse is lit, it cannot be eradicated,” he said. “From America’s point of view and that of NBC, it’s a big deal. That Cate Campbell video will be played many times.”

“Cowbell” already became a code for the rivalry between swimmers on the pool deck in Indianapolis, where the U.S. finally showed its strength in its nine-day trial meet. On paper they have more firepower than the Australians and going into the Games they have swimmers ranked No. 1 in the world in seven individual events and will be favored to win four relays, compared to the five No. 1 rankings and two relays from Australia. That’s an 11-7 split if the competition follows the form guide, but no ranking system survives contact with actual racing.

The rest of the world will have a substantial say in the medal distribution, particularly China. What the direct comparison between the US and Australian processes shows is that the US is a more balanced team, with an equal number of male and female medal contenders.

Australia is heavily reliant on its powerful women’s team and will need to step up to match the US. But there’s a good chance the Americans will step up too. Swimmers like Mollie O’Callaghan (100m freestyle), Kyle Chalmers (100m freestyle) and Sam Short (400m/800m freestyle), who all won world titles in Fukuoka last year but didn’t show their best form at the Australian trials, will need that extra gear in Paris, as will defending champion Zac Stubblety-Cook, Olympic champion in the 200m breaststroke.

It is incredibly rare for a team to capitalize on every opportunity for a gold medal at the Olympics. Anything above 50% is generally a good result, but that won’t be enough to overcome the might of the American team in nine days. Australia will have to win most of the important matches to achieve its ambition. As Australian head coach Rohan Taylor says, this is the America’s Cup of swimming, and his team is always the underdog.

It is worth remembering that Australia won the men’s 4x100m freestyle title at the 2000 Sydney Olympics (lowering the US colors for the first time in history), but the US won the war (14-5 in gold medals). Ultimately, American swimmers thrived because of the threat to their supremacy.

Michael Klim, who led the Australian relay team and spoke to the Parisian team on the first day of their orientation camp in Brisbane last week, can certainly see similarities with the run-up to Sydney. He said the Australian team’s chances of success “depend on the team’s maturity to deal with the media frenzy”.

“The US has the right to use this as motivation, but luckily for Australia they don’t have a personality like Michael Phelps or Gary Hall to lead them this time,” he said. “But then they just have to keep doing what they are doing and rely on their superior depth. Let’s hope [the trash-talking] brings out the best in our swimmers and we are looking at great swimming performances.”

In Sydney, the guitar became the unlikely symbol of swimming’s greatest rivalry. In Paris it might be the cowbell.