20 June, 2024

Team Speedo at the Olympic and Paralympic Trials For the Paris 2024 Games

DAY 1

Day 1 saw 6 Team Speedo athletes qualify for Paris with both Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown qualifying for their 2nd Olympic Games and posting the top time in the World this season.

The battle between Elijah Winnington and Sam Short continued with Elijah just coming out on top. This will be Elijah’s second Olympics and Sam will make his debut.

Also making her debut will be Lani Pallister qualifying 2nd behind Ariarne.

Australia’s most decorated Olympian Emma McKeon qualified for her 3rd Olympics enabling her to add to her already huge collection of medals.

Speedo friendly Brenden Hall also qualified for his 5th Paralympic Games.

DAY 2

3 more Team Speedo Ambassadors were added as Paris qualifiers with Mollie O’Callaghan qualifying for her first ever individual event at an Olympics as she was only a relay swimmer in Tokyo. She broke the 58 second barrier for the first time in 100m backstroke coming in 2nd to Kaylee McKeown who was a smidgeon off her own World Record.

In the Men’s 200m Freestyle where 4 spots are guaranteed for selection, we had 3 in the top 4. Tommy Neill grabbed 2nd spot to qualify for his 2nd Games, storming home in the outside lane.

Elijah Winnington, already having qualified in the 400 m Freestyle was 3rd and Kai Taylor snuck into the top 4 putting him into the position of guaranteed selection.

DAY 3

The race of the night was always going to be the head-to-head battle between reigning WR holder, Mollie O’Callaghan and the one who always had the potential to break the WR in the 200 freestyle but had never quite done it – Ariarne Titmus.

Brisbane witnessed history with both girls dipping under Mollie’s WR but Ariarne taking the crown. In the same event Brianna Throssell was added to our Team Speedo list for Paris, our total now 10 and Lani Pallister added the 4 x 200 Relay to her programme.

The Sam Short v Elijah Winnington battle continued with Elijah achieving the QT to swim the 800 Freestyle in Paris and Sam just shy.

Paralympic highlight tonight was our Speedo Icon, Ahmed Kelly qualifying for his 4th Paralympics where no doubt, he will do Speedo proud in Paris.

DAY 4

2 more Speedo Ambassadors added to our ever-growing list for Paris!

Last night, Lizzy Dekkers shook off all the demons from 2021 when she just missed out on qualification for Tokyo. Following the performance which puts her in podium position for Paris, she conducted an interview which was honest/intelligent and to the point.

Flynn Southam also shook off the cobwebs grabbing 3rd to give him a 4 x 100 Freestyle relay spot for Paris.

Cody Simpson missed the final of the 100 Freestyle but swam a PB in the B Final giving him the 6th fastest time at the meet so far.

Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown, Lani Pallister and Kai Taylor added more events to their Olympic Schedule with Kaylee coming close to her WR in the 200m Backstroke

DAY 5

After a 5 day long wait, Zac Stubblety-Cook finally books his ticket to Paris to be in a position to defend his title in 200 Breaststroke.

On the flip side of the coin, Emma McKeon will not have that chance after missing out on an individual spot in the 100 Freestyle. Luckily, another Team Speedo Ambassador, Mollie O’Callaghan did win a spot and will give it her best in Paris to keep the crown owned by an Australian.

The swim of the night in the same event should go to youngster Olivia Wunsch who handled the pressure cooker in style swimming a PB and coming 5th putting her in a great position for Olympic Selection.

The Australian Paralympic Team was selected, and we went FULL SPEEDO by handing out GO FULL SPEEDO Baguettes to all the Team.

DAY 6

Day 6 we had no additions to our already impressive list of Team Qualifiers.

Lani Pallister booked another event onto her roster for Paris in the 1500m freestyle while Emma McKeon just missed out on an individual spot in the 50m freestyle meaning she won’t be able to retain her Olympic title at the Games.

The highly anticipated and high pressure 100m butterfly saw Cody Simpson have to handle defeat in amongst a media fury. In a close race, coming 5th was not what he wished but a realistic result given that the competition was so tight.

His post-race interviews saw no tears – nothing but words of gratification that he had the opportunity to at least try to become the best swimmer he had the potential to be.

The Paris 44 strong Olympic Team was selected and we once again showered the athletes with Go Full Speedo baguettes!