The Dolphins will race for four gold medals at Paris La Défense Arena, in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest nights at the Olympic pool for the Australians and the host nation.
Kyle Chalmers has the chance to be the first man since the legendary Alex Popov to win a medal in three consecutive 100m Freestyle finals and qualified second fastest (47.58s) behind Chinese world record holder Pan Zhanle (47.2s). The South Australian swims from lane five.
Club mates Shayna Jack (52.72s) and Mollie O’Callaghan (52.75s) lead the Australian charge in the Women’s 100m Freestyle, qualifying second and third respectively, with Mollie looking to complete the 100m-200m double and Shayna seeking a first individual Olympic medal after relay gold on night one.
Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:08.57) finds himself in one of the highest-profile races of the program, where he not only has to take on Frenchman Leon Marchand but the 17,000 fans who will be raising the roof in a bid to scream him towards another gold medal.
Zac won the Olympic title in Tokyo and will try to become the third Australian to defend in Paris, with Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown having already done the job in the 400m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke respectively.
He was second-fastest through to the final, behind Marchand (2:08.11) and will be joined in lane eight by compatriot Joshua Yong (2:09.89).
It was a short program of heats on Wednesday morning with just three events held, one of which - the women’s 200m Butterfly - only had 19 competitors, 16 of which progressed to the semifinals.
Two of those were Australians Lizzie Dekkers (2:08.97) and Abbey Connor (2:07.13), and both comfortably through to the semis. Lizzie knew she didn’t have to push hard given the small field and qualified eighth, with Abbey the third-fastest.
“That was part of my approach, knowing I had to get through to the semis. I could conserve energy and really didn’t want to push it too hard, just get a lane,” Lizzie said.
She said it had been difficult to wait until day five to get in the water given the form of the Dolphins thus far but she had been using that energy as motivation.
“It’s been nerve-wracking. It’s been great to watch everyone do so amazing and I’m just so excited to be a part of it. As a group, we definitely feed off each other,” Lizzie said.
Finals start at 4:30am AEST 1 August.
Phil Lutton
