Swimming Australia has announced that Brisbane will be the host of the 2014 Australian National Championships from April 1st-6th at the Brisbane Aquatics Center, Chandler.
After two straight years of this meet being held in Adelaide at their new $100 million swim center, the Australians are shifting the meet closer to the Gold Coast, also in Queensland, which is the host site of the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in August.
2014 will be a busy year for the Aussies, even without an Olympic Games or a long course World Championship meet. The Australians will have two big championship meets: the Pan Pac event, and the major multi-sport Commonwealth Games, that are to be held in Glasgow, Scotland next year.
These off years don’t often proffer up the same riches as the other three in each Olympic cycle do, but for a very young Australian team that has been rife with turmoil, this will be an opportunity to get a lot of swimmers the extra experience they need, and also to take some time to sort of “reset” from the last 12 months of turmoil.
This meet will bring the athletes back home closer to their families, which was a vocal complaint for some when the meet was moved to South Australia last year. In any given year, around half of Australia’s international-level swimmers hail from Queensland.
The pool was originally built for the 1982 Commonwealth Games, and itself hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1987.
I watched races from Nationals this year, and I feel like swimming in Australia is not as popular as it used to be? I don’t know, I just remember watching Thorpe and Hackett duke it out back in the early 2000s in Sydney, and the crowd there was loud and passionate. Now it seems like I’m watching a USA club meet.
Interest in a sport is often closely linked to international success. Who cared about the Tour de France before Cadel Evans? People are interested in winners, and Australia doesn’t have many of those at the moment.
Not true . The Tour has been televised live on free to air for over 25 years indicating a very high interest rate. Plus a highlight package at 6pm. Prime time.
Cadel’s success is more about finally being allowed to win & that he is very unassuming . Cadel is the exact opposite of those slick drugged egos on wheels which dominated the sport.
I believe that when the Gold Coast complex is completed Swimming will again be popular to attend. Most people like to have a little Gold Coast holiday & it is very accessible from the airport & accommodation & priced for families.
Until then there is TV.