Two Australian teenagers, surf lifesaving star Jamie Perkins and former child gymnastic protege Iona Anderson have been gifted Paris presents of a lifetime – with the revelation the pair will both receive individual swims when the Olympic swimming program kick starts the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad on July 27.
Swimming World understands both 2023 World Junior champions Perkins (400m freestyle) and Anderson (100m backstroke) have both been given rare opportunities with Lani Pallister and Mollie O’Callaghan both making the big decisions to withdraw from the two events – given their busy programs.
Pallister will forgo her opportunity in a 400m freestyle billed as “The Race Of The Century” to concentrate on the 800 and 1500m freestyles and the 4x200m freestyle relay (after finishing third at The Trials) and dual world champion O’Callaghan will focus on the 100 and 200m freestyles – with both events having semi-finals – as well as up to four relays.
Perkins and Anderson finished third in their respective events at the Australian Trials – but both under the Australian qualifying standards – so the “next gen” Queensland teens have certainly earned their stripes.
Perkins, 19, will now take her place in one of the most highly anticipated events of the Games against Australia’s defending Olympic champion, two-time world champion and world record holder Ariarne Titmus, 2016 Olympic champion and former world record holder Katie Ledecky, Canada’s wunderkind and another former world record holder Summer McIntosh and New Zealand’s rising star and reigning world champion Erika Fairweather.
It was a courageous Perkins, a 2023 Australian Hall of Fame Scholarship holder, who won her World Junior Swimming Championship crown after overcoming a painful back injury which had plagued her through 2022 and 2023.
Perkins flashed home to take out the women’s 400 metres freestyle final in a personal best time of 4:05.72 in Netanya, Israel.
And there was no more deserving winner as she continued the whirlpool of talent and successes of her SPW teammates and women’s world champions from the 2023 Fukuoka Worlds Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack and Brianna Throssell – who she now joins on the Paris Olympic team.
INDIVIDUAL START: Australia’s Jamie Perkins gets a start in the “Race of the Century.” Photo Courtesy Wade Brennan
The Dean Boxall-coached Perkins stuck to her race plan, storming home over the final 100m to claim the victory with her 4:05.72 (59.40; 2:01.64; 3:04.16) – just 0.30 outside fellow Australian Lani Pallister’s World Junior Championship record of 4:05.42 set in Budapest in 2019.
Perkins blasted out her final 100m in 1:01.56 – her last 50m in 30.33 – overtaking top qualifier Ella Christina Jansen from Canada, who led for the first 300m but who finished off the podium in fourth.
After the win, Perkins told how important it was to stick to her plan and of her tough 12 months fightback from the back injury which had troubled her during last year’s World Short Course Championships in Melbourne.
“I’ve had a long 12 months battling a back injury, but that was a really good swim tonight and a great preparation going into next year,” Perkins said on the night.
BACKSTROKE BREAK: World junior Champion and former star gymnast Iona Anderson earns an individual start in the 100m backstroke. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr Swimming Australia
And a deserved golden moment that certainly made up for the five silver medals she won at last year’s Junior Pan Pacs in Hawaii where she finished second in the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle and in Australia’s 4×100 and 4x200m freestyle relays.
Pallister and Perkins -also the best two female surf swimmers in Australian Surf Life Saving, are both former Sunshine Coast training partners under Pallister’s mother Janelle who accepted an opportunity to coach under Olympic gold medal coach Michael Bohl at Griffith University on the Gold Coast in the less up to the Tokyo Olympic Trials. With Perkins eventually landing at the St Peters Western program and thriving under Olympic gold medal coach Dean Boxall.
Competing for Australia’s No 1 surf club, Northcliffe on the Gold Coast, Perkins won eight gold medals and the competitor off the Australian Life Saving Championships in 2022, competing in the U17 Aussies Jamie won, the 2km ocean swim, as well as the individual surf race, board race, ironwoman competition, the Taplin I(Ironman) relay, belt race, surf teams and Open surf teams – the second most ever won at these Championships.
While fellow world junior champion Anderson from WA will take her place alongside defending champion and world record holder Kaylee McKeown in the women’s 100m backstroke despite O’Callaghan’s sub 58 seconds swim at the Trials.
Tough decisions from both Pallister and O’Callaghan as its not every day you earn the right to qualify for an Olympic event.
But Pallister and O’Callaghan both have busy programs in the pool – O’Callaghan – losing her 200m freestyle world record to Titmus in a helter-skelter Trials meet after qualifying in the 100m backstroke the night before – revealing that its may well have taken the edge off her.
While Pallister also qualified for her first Olympic team on the opening night of the Australian Trials last month – finishing second to Titmus.
Nineteen-year-old Perkins finished third in a personal best and Olympic qualifying time of 4:04.38 – 0.60 under the Australian standard of 4:04.98.
Pallister continued the meet of her life, qualifying in the 800 and the 1500m freestyle as well as the 4x200m freestyle, where she finished third behind Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan in their showstopping world record romp to secure her place in the squad.
(While Pallister also continued to showed her surf prowess – winning Aussies gold 24 hours after being named on the Olympic team – producing a dominant swim leg in the Tallon Relay for her Alexandra Headlands Surf Club.)
As did Perkins, who was equal fifth in the 200m final with St Peters team mate Shayna Jack – both girls swimming under the individual qualifying time – securing their places on the team.
THREE FOR ALL: Sam Short will contest the 400, 800 and 1500m in Paris. Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Meanwhile World 400m champion Sam Short has confirmed from the gteram camp that he will officially add the 1500m freestyle to the 400 and 800m freestyle and by his own admission, Short is back to full fitness and and clocking some fast times in training, after a gastro virus impacted on his Trials campaign.
Speaking from Dolphins training camp in Canet-en-Roussillon, in the south of France, the 20-year-old from Rackley Swim Team in Brisbane, said he had recovered from the stomach bug that stripped 4kg in 48 hours in the lesd up to the Trials.
“We’re putting in some good work … and some solid sessions and I’m feeling really good, (there’s) some fast times,” he said.
“Mentally it was a good learning experience to have that kind of bad experience and know I can deal with it and no matter how I feel, I can still get up on the blocks and put in a decent performance.
“I’m buzzing … I’m soaking up every moment here and I can’t wait to get to the village, it will be awesome.
“The atmosphere (in training camp) when everyone is doing a hard session is pretty cool. I think everyone wants to get up and do something fast because everyone else is doing it,” Short said.
Short and the resurgence of Elijah Winnington has given the 400m an Olympic-sized boost in the past 12 months.
In other moves in the entries:
Queensland’s Trials success story Ella Ramsay is believed to have dropped out of the 100m breaststroke, leaving Tokyo Olympian Jenna Strauch as the lone Australian entrant;
Tokyo Olympian Tommy Neill will fill the vacant second spot in the 200m individual medley where he will join Will Petric as well as the 200m freestyle alongside Max Giuliani.
Matt Temple will also add the 200m butterfly to the 100m butterfly.
Tokyo debutant Isaac Cooper and Paris rookie Brad Woodward will line up in the 100m backstroke.
The expected Australian entries:
Women
50m freestyle – Shayna Jack, Meg Harris
100m freestyle – Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack
200m freestyle – Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan
400m freestyle – Ariarne Titmus, Jamie Perkins
800m freestyle – Ariarne Titmus, Lani Pallister
1500m freestyle – Lani Pallister, Moesha Johnson
100m backstroke – Kaylee McKeown, Iona Anderson
200m backstroke – Kaylee McKeown, Jaclyn Barclay
100m butterfly – Emma McKeon, Alexandria Perkins
200m butterfly – Lizzy Dekkers, Abbey Connor
100m breaststroke – Jenna Strauch
200m breaststroke – Ella Ramsay, Jenna Strauch
200m individual medley – Kaylee McKeown, Ella Ramsay
400m individual medley – Ella Ramsay, Jenna Forrester
Relay only: Bronte Campbell, Olivia Wunsch, Brianna Throssell
Men
50m freestyle – Cameron McEvoy, Ben Armbruster
100m freestyle – Kyle Chalmers, William Yang
200m freestyle – Max Giuliani, Tommy Neill
400m freestyle – Elijah Winnington, Sam Short
800m freestyle – Elijah Winnington, Sam Short
1500m freestyle – Sam Short
100m backstroke – Isaac Cooper, Brad Woodward
200m backstroke – Brad Woodward, Se-Bom Lee
100m butterfly – Matt Temple, Ben Armbruster
200m butterfly – Matt Temple
100m breaststroke – Sam Williamson, Josh Yong
200m breaststroke – Zac Stubblety-Cook, Josh Yong
200m individual medley – William Petric, Tommy Neill
400m individual medley – Brendon Smith, William Petric
Relay only: Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor, Zac Incerti, Jack Cartwright
TOP TEN: St Peters Western 10 Paris Olympians with Jamie Perkins front row left. Photo Courtesy Wade Brennan
