2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Live results
The 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships are already underway, with diving, artistic swimming, water polo and open water swimming all having seen events get started in Gwangju, Korea. We’re still eagerly awaiting the pool swimming competition to kick-off, with action set to begin on Sunday, July 21st.
A key mover and shaker slated to race for Australia is Olympic medalist Emma McKeon. The versatile 25-year-old is carrying a big program into Gwangju, expected to contest the individual 100m free, 200m free and 100m fly individually, but also act as a vital component on all of the Aussie relays.
Below, McKeon speaks to how the incredible talent down under works together to push each other and raise the bar heading into the biggest competition outside of an Olympic Games.
The women will really be tested in the relays, as member Shayna Jack shockingly announced her withdrawal from the World Championships just today, despite her having been engaged in training camp with McKeon and the rest of the team in Nagaoka, Japan.
The Aussies have several stars ready to fill in, to the tune of Madi Wilson, Leah Neale, and Brianna Throssell, but adaptation will be key for the Dolphins to maintain the course and hold off the Americans and others in the highly-anticipated relay events.
She’ll win 200 free at WC. My money is on her.
She IS likely to have a stacked program, especially if AUS takes both mixed relays seriously. How team bosses “leverage” her usage through the meet will be pivotal but more importantly WILL she be “on point” in both her freestyle (which has been firing) and her butterfly which has perhaps been slightly off peak (but hard to gauge given the lack of domestic competition)
IF well managed and both strokes “on point”, then she’s likely to fly out of Gwangju with at least 6 medals (maybe 7) of which at least one should be gold and potentially 2 individual medals.
Is 1200 meters in individual events over an 8-day meet really a tough program as she says, even with relays? She may have tough competition, but doesn’t strike me as a tough program for a pro athlete who trains all year for a big meet and probably trains 5000-7500 meters per day. Nevertheless, she seems to have that insecure Australian overconfidence that is usually followed by underperformance.
Overconfidence? She is obviously extremely shy, but happy with the tweaks and changes she has made to her preparation. I don’t think there is any hubris at all in her interview???
Only Americans are entitled to be brash and over confident .. didnt you know that .. any other country is rude and disrespectful to Americans apparently .. like chad le clos
..Like the American female relay teams last summer?
swimmers from other countries are not even allowed to feel confident now? OK.
Funny you say that. McKeon is one of the few Australian swimmers who truly swims up a level at big meets, and she does it consistently. I’m in the opposite camp. I believe the fact that she was already setting PBs at Trials augurs for a monster performance in Gwangju.