Aussie Chelsea Hodges Makes Post-Surgery Long Course Debut

2023 COUNTRY SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (AUS)

• Friday, September 29th – Tuesday, October 3rd
• Parap Pool, Parap, Northern Territory, Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Results: Meet Mobile – 2023 Country Swimming Championships

The 2023 Country Swimming Championships wrapped up last night in Northern Territory, Australia, and a particularly notable athlete dove in to compete.

Racing in her first long course competition post-hip surgery, Chelsea Hodges raced in the women’s 50m and 100m breaststroke events. The 22-year-old Southport Olympic Swim Club swimmer clocked a time of 31.45 to win the former and 1:08.80 to top the podium in the latter distance.

Hodges owns a lifetime best of 30.05 in the 50m breast, a time she registered en route to taking bronze in the event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Her career-quickest 100m breast checks in at the 1:05.99 scored at the 2021 Australian Olympic Trials.

Earlier this year Hodges did not compete at the Australian World Championships Trials, instead opting to undergo surgery to repair torn cartilage in her right hip. She faced an estimated 4-month recovery period with August’s Queensland Short Course Championships marking the Olympian’s first meet back.

At those championships, Hodges clocked 30.73 in the 50m breast and 1:06.67 in the 100m breast to top the podium in each. For perspective, Hodges owns a lifetime best of 29.84 in the SCM 50m and 1:04.78 in the SCM 100m with both times having been produced last year.

Hodges’ additional return to the pool is a welcome sight for Australian swimming fans who were missing both her and breaststroking teammate Jenna Strauch in Fukuoka.

Both women have played key roles in the Aussies’ medley relays in the past and their absences left Abbey Harkin to fulfill the role this time around.

Harkin split 1:07.07 on the women’s medley relay this summer and, although the Aussies still snagged silver, her outing was well off 1:05.99 performance Strauch put up a year earlier in Budapest and the 1:05.57 Hodges logged in Tokyo at the Olympic Games.