The Australian and the US swimming rivalry has taken yet another interesting turn. As the Australian Olympic Team Trials concluded, there were a couple of heartbreaks. Favorites to qualify in the men’s and women’s divisions, Cody Simpson and Cate Campbell failed to get their names in the top two. Competing in Brisbane, Campbell, and Simpson finished in seventh and fifth places, respectively. And while this result was unexpected for Australia, the bittersweet rivalry with the US once again comes to the forefront.
The USA vs Australia rivalry was in full glory when both teams met at the World Championships in 2023. Displaying a sublime performance, the Australian team clinched 13 gold medals, while the US fell behind significantly with only 7 golds to their name. However, Australia was in for a shock when the World Aquatics named the US as the number 1 team of the tournament due to their superior medal count of 38 over Australia’s 25. And this is where things began to go horribly wrong.
Utterly frustrated with the scoring system, 4x Olympian, Cate Campbell lashed out at the US Team. Appearing in a news interview, Campbell termed the US team as “sore losers” and vouched to beat them come the Paris Olympics. Unfortunately, that would not be possible at the moment as it seems that her “loser” comment has come back to bite her.
