Melanie Schlanger, whose rejuvenated career culminated with a 4th-place finish in the women’s 100 free at last year’s Olympic Games, has pulled out of the World Championships due to a combination of illnesses and injuries that have interrupted her training in 2013.
According to Australia’s Border Mail, Schlanger said of the decision “Unfortunately that’s pretty much given me a total of about a week of race-specific training which for me is not enough in my mind to be competitive at the world championships and be at the standard that I expect of myself and what I believe should be expected of a swimmer on the national team.”
Schlanger won a gold and two silver medals at last summer’s Olympic Games, all of which came in relays.
Schlanger has battled a rib injury, a sore shoulder, and some viral infection already in 2013. The most significant of those was the rib, injured while doing a strong-man-esque style training routine with truck tires. That directly impacted her performance at this year’s Australian National Championships, which caused her to qualify for only for the 400 and 800 free relays.
This will be a blow to the hopes of the Australian women at following their Olympic success with another 400 free relay gold, though it could be balanced out by the return to form of one Cate Campbell, who has the 5 best 100 freestyle times in the world already this year.
The spot will be filled by swimmers already on the team, which could tax an already fairly thin women’s squad. Cate Campbell will certainly swim this relay in finals, as will Alicia Coutts, but the other two spots now will likely be filled by the younger Bronte Campbell, Emily Seebohm, Brittany Elmslie, and/or Ami Matsuo.
The full updated Australian roster can be seen below:
MEN (21 pool, 3 open water)
Matthew ABOOD (26) NSW, Ashley DELANEY (27) VIC, Tommaso D’ORSOGNA (22) WA, Thomas FRASER-HOLMES (21) QLD, Alexander GRAHAM (18) VIC, Jordan HARRISON (17) QLD, Simon HUITENGA (24) WA, Grant IRVINE (22) QLD, Jarrod KILLEY (22) NSW, Mitch LARKIN (19) QLD, Matson LAWSON (20) VIC, James MAGNUSSEN (22) NSW, Rhys MAINSTONE (22) WA, Cameron MCEVOY (18) QLD, Ned MCKENDRY (20) QLD, David MCKEON (20) NSW, Jarrod POORT (18) NSW, Brenton RICKARD (29) QLD, James ROBERTS (22) QLD, Christian SPRENGER (27) QLD, Matt TARGETT (27) VIC, Kenneth TO (20) NSW, Chris WRIGHT (24) QLD, Daniel TRANTER (21) NSW
WOMEN (total 14 pool, 4 open water)
Jessica ASHWOOD (19) NSW, Bronte BARRATT (24) QLD, Bronte CAMPBELL (18) QLD, Cate CAMPBELL (20) QLD, Alicia COUTTS (25) QLD, Danielle DE FRANCESCO (20) QLD, Brittany ELMSLIE (18) QLD, Sally FOSTER (28) SA, Melissa GORMAN (27) QLD, Chelsea GUEBECKA (14) QLD, Belinda HOCKING (22) VIC, Bonnie MACDONALD (17) QLD, Samantha MARSHALL (20) VIC, Ami MATSUO (16) NSW, Emma MCKEON (18) NSW, Megan NAY (24) QLD, Kylie PALMER (23) QLD, Emily SEEBOHM (20) QLD
*Italics – Qualified as an Open Water Swimmer
No disrespect to schlanger(considering her health and form this year), but had it been Cate Campbell or Alicia Coutts withdrawing from the championships, then the Aussie would’ve been in trouble. I believe bronte Campbell needs to race relay heats – she has not competed in a relay internationally, plus you need that first hit out swim. McKeon will swim heats as will Matsuo. Elmslie will prob swim heats too, even though she would have just finished 100m fly heats.
Looking at the 4x200m free, the Aussies have barratt, palmer, mckeon, elmslie and coutts. I won’t be surprised if coutts swims 4x200m free final.
Bad news for Australia. The relay will be much closer. But I keep my first prediction and I still pick Australia with a sledge advantage.
It is funny how Braden Keith mentioned the likes of Miss Seebohm, Brittany Elmslie and Ami Matsuo being relay fillers and not Emma McKeon. At the 2012 Australian Age Championships, McKeon split a 53.56 in her club’s 4x100m free relay. Her individual winning time at the meet was a 54.90. Her form is much better this year and only one would expect she would be swimming much faster. Matsuo and Seebohm will not swimming the relay final. My predicted line up is: Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell, McKeon or Elmslie (McKeon), Coutts.
A blow but hardly a deathblow ! Apart from Franklin, the rest of the likely US squad went 53high (most of whom it was a PB and minimal if any intl experience). Taking away Campbell Sr, the remainder of the likely AUS swimmers have intl big meet experience and a number have consistent sub 54s on their CV. Will be a close race and this does narrow the odds but I’d still have AUS narrow favourites in this one
Yeah I’d love for the US to pull it off but they’re outside shots at best. The two reasons I even think the US has a chance at all is because of Franklin and Simone Manuel. Franklin tends to drop time at the 2nd meet for summer double tapers (she did so in 2012 and 2010) and Manuel is a bit of an X factor. But beyond that you have Vreeland and Romano, neither of which train specifically for the 100 and haven’t shown consistent results. Coughlin has been primarily focusing on the 50.
Nothing is done before ” J ” Day but this gives the Usa more chances to get close to gold . We will seee ………..
Aussie swimmers seem to have a constant list of injuries and illnesses when they get close to major competitions.
There goes AUS 4×100 free gold.
USA is prohibitive favorite now in this event.
What makes you so sure? On paper, the Australians are actually still faster, based on adding the times of the top 4 at trials. The Australians have more time to improve between their trials and champs, and were less fresh – the Americans swam the 100 early while the Australian race was late in the meet and had more stages. I like the Americans’ chances as well, but I’m puzzled as to why you think it’s a done deal.
The problem is not so much that AUS did not have other swimmers who swim fast.
The problem is that AUS is not bringing many female swimmers to Barcelona (14 total?).
In the past, Australia was always able to rest at least 3 of their top swimmers in the prelims relays and still got a very good middle lane in the final.
The absence of Schlanger means that AUS will have to swim Bronte or Cate also in the prelims to guarantee they will get a middle lane. This means also that AUS does not have much choice if one of their top relay swimmers goes “off” or is not “hot”, which leads to reduced chance of going fastest.
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Not so fast ASwimfan. The Australians still have depth and remain favorites. The Campbell sisters give them a 52 and a 53sec swimmer. Coutts is also a proven 53 second swimmer. Elmslie split 53.4 on the gold medal winning relay in London. That’s a very strong foursome. Then you have 18 y/o Emma McKeon who is on the verge of breaking 54 (she was 54.17 at the Australian Champs.)
It was already known that even if Schlanger competed she was unlikely to be on the form of last year given her persisting health issues (she was behind all the aforementioned swimmers at the Australian Nationals).