Triple Olympic gold medallists Libby Trickett, Leisel Jones and Stephanie Rice will headline over 2,000 athletes competing at this year’s Queensland State Championships from 10 to 16 December, at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre. 

The 26-year-old Trickett, who competed at her first Queensland Championships when she was eight-years-old, is excited at the prospect of fine tuning her racing skills against some of Australia’s most promising female sprinters, including Olympic bronze medallist Cate Campbell and talented Wollongong teen Emma McKeon.

“It always has incredible competition and for me it's an important stepping stone in my preparation for the Olympic trials in March in Adelaide,” said Trickett.

“It will be great to see where I'm at and have the opportunity to race some of the great female sprinters we have in Australia."

For Jones, who recently joined Rice as the newest member of Michael Bohl’s St Peters Western squad, this event will be important in her progression towards an unprecedented fourth Olympic Games. 

“The timing of this year’s Queensland Champs is ideal and gives me a chance to find out things, under the stress of racing, that I may need to work on before the trials in March,” said Jones.

“The last four years in Melbourne have been great but I recently made the decision to be closer to my family network up here in Brisbane, in my final push towards a fourth Olympic Games.”

Joining Trickett, Rice and Jones in the pool will be newly crowned 2011 Swimmer of the Year James Magnussen, who will be competing in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle.

In his first serious hit out since the Shanghai World Championships in July, the 100m freestyle world champion will come up against Gold Coast teen Cameron McEvoy and Olympian Michael Klim in his pet event. Waiting for him in the 200m freestyle will be a trio of former national champions in Patrick Murphy, Nick Ffrost and Thomas Fraser-Holmes. 

The meet will also have a distinct international flavour with swimmers from China, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Korea making the trip to Queensland.

Leading the international charge is defending Korean Olympic 400m freestyle gold medallist Park Tae Hwan, who made his Olympic debut as a 14-year-old in Athens and will contest the 100m, 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle in Queensland.  

Swimming Australia