Let’s take a reality check before we bag Australia’s swimming team

How poor was the performance of the Australian swimming pool team at the 2012 London games compared to previous Olympic Games teams?

As Table 1 indicates, if we compare medals won at the last 17 Olympic Games, the 2012 Australian team performed quite badly, although the 10 medals won in 2012 was nowhere near as disastrous as the 1976 and 1988 teams which won one and three medals respectively. 

In terms of individual freestyle events, however, Australia’s failure to win male or female event matches 2008, 1984, 1980, 1976, 1952 and 1948.

And with Australia’s female 4 x 100m freestyle relay team wining gold, the 2012 team avoided emulating the 1948 and 1976 teams by not winning at least one swimming gold medal. 

Table 1: Olympic Games Medals won by Australian swimmers in 1948-2012 (gold medals won in brackets)

But what of the future? Does Australia have the depth to rebound at coming Olympic Games?

If we go by the number of Australians making finals in London, as illustrated by Table 2, then Australia’s performance of 28 finalists compares favourably with recent Olympic Games since 1992.

Table 2: Number of Australian finalists in swimming at Olympic Games 1992-2012