The Australian Women Stand Alone Atop the 800 Freestyle Relay

By Aidan Burns on SwimSwam

When a current world record holder breaks their own WR and still doesn’t win, there is some serious talent in the pool. At the Australian Trials two weeks ago, Mollie O’Callaghan touched second in the women’s 200 freestyle in a time that was under her 1:52.85 world record in 1:52.48, but it still fell just shy of Ariarne Titmus, who set a new benchmark of 1:52.23.

Rounding out the top four at Trials and making up the likely 800 free relay relay in Paris are Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell, who touched at 1:55.57 and 1:55.74, respectively. Without accounting for relay takeovers, their 800 free relay in Paris would look like this:

Titmus – 1:52.23
O’Callaghan – 1:52.48
Pallister – 1:55.57
Throssell – 1:55.74
Total – 7:36.02*

Paris Preview

The current world record stands at 7:37.50, set by the Australian team last summer at the World Championships in Fukuoka. When the record was set, Shayna Jack was on the team instead of Pallister and she will also be traveling to Paris with Australia. Depending on how they want to structure the prelim and evening relays the names are subject to change but with two more 1:56-lows supporting the team, they don’t lack depth.

Coming out of the 2023 World Trials, the add-up of the four that would go on to set the record in Fukuoka would have been 7:41.66. Knowing they then went on to crush that by over four seconds as Titmus dropped the fastest split in history (1:52.41), the questions this summer become:

How far can they lower their own record?
Will Titmus and/or O’Callaghan become the first to break the 1:52 mark (from a takeover…or not)?

To put this relay in perspective, no other relay team has ever broken the 7:40 mark in the 800 free relay. The closest team was the gold medal relay from China at the Tokyo Olympics at 7:40.33. This team will be returning their swimmers in Paris this summer, but the Australian team is in a league of their own for this relay.

Based on the results of the Chinese and Canadian Trials, the Australian team is looking at an eight-second buffer heading into the Olympics. While the United States is still in the mix after Trials, there is a massive amount of ground to be made up for all these teams as they chase Australia’s heels. Based on the times posted so far this year, it’s unlikely any other team will break 7:40.

Country
Australia
China
United States
Canada

Leg 1
1:52.23
1:54.37
1:55.22
1:53.69

Leg 2
1:52.48
1:56.29
1:56.18
1:55.44

Leg 3
1:55.57
1:56.56
1:56.36
1:57.60

Leg 4
1:55.74
1:56.85
1:56.75
1:57.86

Total Time
7:36.02
7:44.07
7:44.51
7:44.59

At the Tokyo Olympics, there was less than one second separating the top three finishers as China, the United States, and Australia battled tooth and nail for podium spots.

While we won’t know for sure until the Paris Games this summer, it is shaping up to be a race for silver as Australia seeks to smash its mind-boggling world record.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: The Australian Women Stand Alone Atop the 800 Freestyle Relay