Courtesy: Swimming Australia
Watch the greatest female sprinters in the world of swimming go head-to-head live and free at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre this month on streaming platform 9Now.
Swimming Australia and the Nine Network have announced the 2023 World Championships Trials in Melbourne will be streamed through the Nine Network’s streaming platform.
Former world backstroke and butterfly champion Matt Welsh will head the coverage from June 13-18 with swimming fans able to stream every heat and every final.
Welsh said modern-day greats Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan and Bronte Campbell had made the women’s 50m and 100m freestyle events a must-see.
“What a field – they are all Olympic gold medallists – add the great comeback story of Shayna Jack, these women are at the front of sprinting in the world,” said Welsh.
“In the men’s field, there’s Kyle Chalmers of course but this is the time future Olympic champions and household names are discovered and Flynn Southam is an absolute bolter.”
The deal follows the success of the Nine Network’s coverage of April’s Australian Age Championships and Australian Swimming Championships.
More than 500 athletes will contest the trials, including world record-holder Zac Stubblety-Cook, Kyle Chalmers, Mack Horton and Cody Simpson, as Australia’s best strive to earn their place on the Dolphins’ team for July’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
“Australian’s appetite to watch top-class swimming has never gone away and it is exciting to see the upcoming World Championships Trials will be streamed on 9Now,” said Dr Michelle Gallen, Swimming Australia President.
“We saw positive viewing numbers throughout the Australian Age Championships and Australian Championships earlier this year, with more than 14 million minutes viewed across the country.
“With World Championships berths on the line, the Trials will be hotly contested and it is great news for fans of Australian swimming that no matter where you are across the country, you will be able to stream the action live on 9Now.”
Brent Williams, Nine’s Director of Sport, said the success of the Network’s recent swimming coverage signified just how important it is to showcase the stars of today and tomorrow in the lead up to Paris 2024.
“There’s already a host of household names in the Australian Dolphins but the emerging talent is just as exciting and Nine is looking forward to showcasing these champions to anyone, anywhere through 9Now,” he said.
“The World Championships in Fukuoka will be the biggest event on the swimming calendar in 2023, so we’re delighted 9Now will be providing free coverage of the Trials to swimming fans throughout Australia.”
Matt Welsh should be ok for commentary but still worried about the other muppets that they might announce. Better not be some of these lame ducks they have used for their French Open tennis coverage.
Should be compulsory for any Aussie network who wins the rights to employ Nicole. For two decades she has been covering up so many errors by her fellow ‘experts’.
No thanks!
balls
Any idea if 9now does replays? Can’t watch live…
They did for nationals.
Yes. They still have 2023 Nationals, 2022 Melbourne SCW and 2022 Budapest LCW available to watch. Pretty sure they stay up for about a year, but they can take a little while (half a day to a day?) to upload them
What happened to Amazon Prime?
Contract expired last year and was only for domestic championships. 9 bought the rights for international events (showed last years LC & SC Worlds) and now has Olympic rights.
Guessing that’s only in Australia?
Yeah it’ll be region locked to Australia but with a VPN you can probably get the 9Now website to work anywhere
Australian geoblocks tend to be quite easy to bypass unlike some of the American ones which can be a nightmare.
“The great come back story of Shayna Jack”.
I wonder what does Mack Horton think about this.
Well she’s Australian and not Chinese so I think we all know what Mack Horton thinks about her.
I don’t so much as mind the double standard as I wish they’d admit to it. If these athletes owned the “good for me, bad for you” double standard, I’d have way more respect for them.
(Cough a certain South African who I won’t name because I don’t want to light his fuse again).
I doubt any opponent of Shayna Jack gets trolled by 50 million Chinese on social media…
I miss the Prime coverage.
They raised the bar with their last effort. Never seen better Oz trials coverage.
Agree but were never realistically going to match $$$ that 9 would offer and 9 bought the rights for international events plus now has the Olympic rights so it now all ties in.
Will watch via VPN ……. with commentary muted.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon didn’t renew the contract because viewership was too low.
Strongly suspect that was a significant contributor. 2021 may have had some additional % points due to Olympic qualification but hard to disagree that 2022 would have fallen away.