Nerves abound at Australian Swimming Paris Olympic Trials as Ariarne Titmus qualifies
There are few places where nerves are more palpable than at an Olympic trials.
The hot, chlorine-scented air inside the Brisbane Aquatic Centre is heavy with them.
The anxiety of athletes and their loved ones, milling around amongst the eucalyptus trees outside the venue, permeates in through the gates, down the grandstands’ multicoloured seats and onto the pool deck, where swimmers seek final reassurance from their coaches during warm-ups in crowded competition lanes.
Inside the aging, 1982-built venue, the dreams of hundreds of Australia’s most talented swimmers could be realised.
Or, more likely, dashed.
Amongst Australia’s deepest-ever pool of talent, just two swimmers in each event will book their spot on the plane to Paris.
For a maximum 52 swimmers, the chance for a shot at sporting immortality awaits.
For the rest: Disappointment. Heartbreak. Empty platitudes of “maybe next time”.
Of course, not everyone’s chances are on quite such a knife edge.
The stars on night one were expected to shine: Ariarie Titmus, Kayley McKeown and Emma McKeon — Olympic champions all — were in action and, as expected, booked their spots in Paris at the first time of asking.
That’s not to say the same nerves don’t linger — Olympic champions are just as susceptible to the creeping fear that a 14-year-old making their debut at a meet of this calibre is.
Even the greatest feel the familiar butterflies dancing in their stomachs.
Even Titmus — two-time 400m world champion, defending Olympic gold medallist and reigning queen of the eight-length discipline.
But after her heat, in which she admitted that she switched off after three laps, Titmus admitted to feeling some nerves.
“It’s so crazy. If I just know what I know how to do, it’s just another heat swim,” Titmus said.
“But for some reason, at Olympic trials I just get way more nervous about everything.”
That was despite recording a 4:01.57 — comfortably under the qualifying time and over five seconds faster than the next-quickest qualifier, Lani Pallister.
In truth, you sense it would have taken something quite remarkable — a disaster of Ian Thorpe falling off the blocks in 2004 proportions — to knock Titmus off her perch, so dominant is she in her pet event.
“It’s just swimming,” Titmus added.
“Just” is, perhaps, relative, although swimming the 400m free is something Titmus does better than any other woman alive.
The 23-year-old from Launceston has swum five of the nine fastest times ever over this distance in a 50m pool and no Australian woman has ever got within six seconds of Titmus’s domineering world record of 3:55.38.
Only Titmus, in fact, who came within just 0.06 seconds of breaking her own mark on Monday night.
Lani Pallister, who joined Titmus in making the team in the 400 metres, said she was so anxious she could barely talk in the waiting area.
“I was standing in the marshalling room and, I had no words,” the 22-year-old said.
“I was so anxious, and normally I’m quite bubbly and chatty and I was just dead silent.
“Leah Neale was speaking to me and she said, ‘I’ve never seen you this anxious in my life.'”
Pallister, who learned enough about the heartache of coming agonisingly close to an Olympic dream three years ago when missing out on a spot in Tokyo, can now rest easy.
Well, easy-ish: She still has swims in the 800m, 1,500m and 200m to come later in the week.
Even Australia’s most decorated Olympian, Emma McKeon, feels the pressure of trials.
“The pressure’s always on,” McKeon said after booking her spot on the team for Paris.
“Olympic trials is just crazy. Everyone always going to be very nervous.”
For McKeon, though, that nervous energy is the fuel she needs to perform.
“I want to be nervous,” she said.
“If I wasn’t nervous I dunno why I would be here, I wouldn’t care. It shows me that I care, it shows me that I’m ready and gets that adrenaline going for me.”
SOURCE: ABCNEWS