Austria will have nine representatives at this year’s Short Course World Championship meet in Windsor, Canada. The Austrian Swimming Federation, or OSV ( short for Osterreichische Schwimmverband) will send five women and four men to compete in the meet. Swimmers qualify by scoring points based on qualifying times; 835 points in short course meters are required to qualify for the meet.
Nineteen-year-old Felix Auböck headlines the team after competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Auböck swam the 400m freestyle in 3:49.35 in Rio, good for 25th place overall, and also competed in the 200m freestyle and 1500m freestyle. He will be joined by fellow Olympians Birgit Koschischek, Lena Kreundl, and Lisa Zaiser. Koschischek took 39th place at the Olympics in the 50m freestyle with a time of 25.58 and holds the Austrian records in 6 events including the short course 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, and 200m butterfly. Kreundl went 2:15.71 and came in 30th in the 200m I.M. while Zaiser, who also competed in the 200m I.M., took 26th with a 2:15.23. Auböck, Kreundl, and Zaiser are all under 23 years old.
Jakub Maly swims for the University of Minnesota in the United States, where he’s trained since moving from his native Vienna in 2013. Maly specializes in the breaststroke and I.M. events for Minnesota. Johannes Dietrich and Christopher Rothbauer will also be representing Austria in the breaststroke events. Christina Nothdurfter and Caroline Pilhatsch have made their mark as part of the Austrian record-setting short course 200m medley relay at the 2014 Austrian Championships.
Two notable absences from the team are David Brandl and Jördis Steinegger, both of whom are focusing on the 2017 Long Course World Championships in Budapest according to the OSV. Brandl represented Austria at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 400m freestyle, taking 40th with a time of 3:54.59. Steinegger also competed at Rio, where she went 4:47.84 to take 29th in the 400m I.M.
The Team
- Felix Auböck
- Johannes Dietrich
- Birgit Koschischek
- Lena Kreundl
- Jakub Maly
- Christina Nothdurfter
- Caroline Pilhatsch
- Christopher Rothbauer
- Lisa Zaiser