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Australian Dolphins | 23 January 2023

World Short Course Crowds Inspire Dominant Dolphins

A month on from the successful FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) staged in Melbourne the performance of the Australian Dolphins in front of a passionate home crowd promises to live long in the memory.

The first FINA event on Australian soil since 2007 attracted more than 20,000 parochial sporting fans across the meet, relishing the opportunity to see our record breaking Dolphins in action after an enormous two years of international competition.

And they certainly didn’t disappoint.

Inspired by the incredible support the home team delivered, producing 13 Gold Medals, 5 World and 1 World Junior Record and an incredible 58% of the group recording personal best times.

Swimming Australia CEO, Eugénie Buckley, said the Championships provided the perfect platform from which to launch into this next critical phase.

We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome with both the success of the event, as well as that of the team in the pool, placing swimming squarely in the nation’s focus and reaffirming its position as Australia’s most popular Olympic and Paralympic sport,” Buckley said.

Bringing international events back to Australia is an important part of our strategy as it is one thing to enjoy the performance of our World class Dolphins through the TV, but it is an entirely different experience to witness it first hand and be part of a crowd that literally lifts the team.

The impact of an event of that scale, not only immediately during the competition but the inspiration it provides for generations of future Australian swimmers leaves an indelible legacy for our sport moving forward in this decade of opportunity.

Dolphins Head Coach, Rohan Taylor, echoed the sentiments.

A large part of our vision as a team is to produce performances that inspire the nation and I have no doubt that was the case for this competition but, equally, we were inspired by our experiences in Bendigo and what was an incredible atmosphere at MSAC.”

I think a successful meet like that on home soil positions us strongly heading into a crucial period and I’m genuinely excited by the momentum we will carry into another important year of competition.”

The Dolphins will next come together at their annual National Event Camp on the Gold Coast in early February with a number of exciting competitions on the horizon including the Australian Championships in April, trials in June and both the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships in Manchester, and World Aquatics (formerly FINA) Championships in Fukuoka, in July.