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Australia Matches Its Best-Ever World Championships Gold Medal Count

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The nation of Australia continued its golden domination of the swimming medal tables through the penultimate night of action in Fukuoka.

Australia’s count of 13 golds with one day left makes this World Championships the first since 2001 when a nation other than the U.S. winds up with the most. Australia’s total already matches its best-ever gold output at a Worlds and sits only behind the 1986 East German team as the most ever collected from a nation not named the United States.

Helping the cause tonight was Cam McEvoy, the 29-year-old Aussie who put up the fastest 50m freestyle time of his career en route to topping the podium. McEvoy of Somerville House Aquatics clinched the victory in a mark of 21.06, inserting himself as the 4th-best performer ever in the event.

Kaylee McKeown made history for her nation by becoming the first-ever female to complete the trifecta of wins in the same stroke at a World Championships.

McKeown sealed the deal with her gold medal-garnering performance in the 200m back this evening, getting to the wall first in a mark of 2:03.85, winning by over one second.

Finally, Australia closed the session with a World Record-breaking swim in the mixed 4x100m free relay. The explosive combination of Jack Cartwright (48.14), Kyle Chalmers (47.25), Shayna Jack (51.73) and Mollie O’Callaghan (51.71) combined to crush a new best-ever result of 3:18.83 to share the podium and bring Australia’s total golds to 13 in all.

 

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ROPES
1 year ago

Well done to the Aussue coaches getting these swimmers to this level.
Great to see a world record from a club team and their coach Dean Boxall.

Personal Best
1 year ago

There have been many close calls over the recent years, with a few hundredths of a second in some events separating Australia from the gold and the top of the medal table.

However, it’s not just Australia’s performance that has helped but the strength of competitors from around the world. The US have had their own close calls these champs, their swimmers out touched by competitors not from Australia. That distribution of medals has also been a factor.

Not to take away from Australia’s performance… it’s probably the best in a long time.
Although I have to say the Tokyo Olympics were brilliant for Australia and were also a big recent highlight, even though the country did not top… Read more »

Skip
1 year ago

Australia is doing very well, to get 1 silver and 1 bronze from open water, 1 gold in diving, 1 gold in high diving, thats pretty impressive, not just limited to the pool swimming. Bodes very well for Paris and beyond. 💚💛

Joel
Reply to  Skip
1 year ago

silver in diving too

Sub13
1 year ago

We have once chance to extend. Australia’s only gold prospect today is the Women’s Medley Relay. Despite all the success this week, on paper USA are still heavy favourites, with their on-paper times an easy WR. Even considering how the week has played out, USA are still favourites but they opened the door slightly on this one.

I still call USA winning by around 3 quarters of a second but we shall see.

Hooked on Chlorine
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago

Australia by .07.

Steve Nolan
1 year ago

Kaylee McKeown made history for her nation by becoming the first-ever female to complete the trifecta of wins in the same stroke at a World Championships.

Well, non-freestyle stroke. I know KL won the 2/4/8/15 in 2015, in addition to winning three freestyle distances…three. other. times.

Damn, never really looked at it like that before.

(Tbf it is “harder” to win a 50/100/200 than 4/8/15.)

This has been your – LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT Annoying-Ass PSA of the Day!

Last edited 1 year ago by Steve Nolan
Washed up
Reply to  Steve Nolan
1 year ago

“For her nation” this is referencing Australia specifically. McKeown is the first Australian female to pull off 3 stroke wins.

Sub13
Reply to  Steve Nolan
1 year ago

Yes they should have called it a “sweep” rather than a trifecta. I can promise you no one is sweeping the freestyles

Fukuoka Gold
Reply to  Steve Nolan
1 year ago

I didn’t know Ledecky swam for Australia

Sub13
1 year ago

It’s almost unbelievable. Magic in the water for Australia in Fukuoka?

The biggest thing is that it’s not like a bunch of them have been soft wins, we’ve just stepped our level up against arguably the most impressive world champs field of all time (the rubber circus aside). 5 of the 13 have been world records, a bunch of them have been the fastest time in years, and 12/13 were faster than the winning time from last year.

So proud!

Hooked on Chlorine
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago

The Paris Olympics can’t come fast enough.

The women’s freestyle events at the Aussie Olympic trials next year are going to be the most hotly contested in history.

Philip Johnson
1 year ago

I tip my hat to the Aussies, fantastic meet for them.

Looking at that chart, as of now, Australia (0.3% of the world’s population) have as many golds as China, US, and France combined (22.5% of the world’s population).

Now there are expectations. Let’s see if they can carry this momentum to the Olympics.

calvin
Reply to  Philip Johnson
1 year ago

the population argument is dumb

Fukuoka Gold
Reply to  calvin
1 year ago

Make your not-so-dumb argument then

Hooked on Chlorine
Reply to  Fukuoka Gold
1 year ago

Four hours (and counting) later . . .

Reilly
Reply to  Philip Johnson
1 year ago

The real number we should be looking at is registered club swimmers. Some Google searches indicated 90,000 in AUS and about 330,000 in the US. I think that’s probably even more impressive. No clear number for France I could find anywhere. Not sure what China’s numbers are, hard to get accurate numbers out of that country as their sports operate very differently.

David S
1 year ago

According to American mainstream news, the US is top of medal table.

Laps
Reply to  David S
1 year ago

The US extended their lead over Aus last night with 6 medals to a paltry 4 for Aus. Clearly a disappointing night for Australia in the pool!

Joking aside, apparently Rowdy did clearly acknowledge Aus leading in golds during last night’s broadcast.

Hooked on Chlorine
Reply to  David S
1 year ago

How unlike the mainstream media to misrepresent something.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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