Four Aussies Named For Marathon Open Water Selection Battle for Paris Olympic Swim Team
Queensland pair Nick Sloman and Moesha Johnson, NSW’s Madeleine Gough and WA’s rising star Kyle Lee will line up for a selection battle royal to fill Australia’s final places on next year’s Olympic 10km marathon swim team for Paris.
SILVER LINING: Nick Sloman (L) winner of the silver medal in Portugal World Cup with Domenico Acerenza (ITA) Kristof Rasovszky (HUN). Photo Courtesy Swimming Australia/World Aquatics.
Swimming Australia has today named the foursome on the eight-strong Dolphins National team for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha next March, which will act as the next vital step in the Olympic selection process.
Order of the day for the men? If Sloman (Noosa, QLD) and Lee (North Coast, WA) both finish in the top 13 the pair will earn automatic Priority Two nominations on their first Olympics teams – joining a select group of Olympic open watermen, Ky Hurst (2008 and 2012), Jarrod Poort (2016) and Kai Edwards (2020).
And for the women? Only the highest placed female in the top 13 out of Johnson (Griffith University) and Gough (Carlile, NSW), will join already qualified Rio Olympian Chelsea Gubecka.
The 25-year-old Gubecka had earned selection on her second Olympic team with her silver medal at this year’s World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka – cementing her name on an elite Olympic group – Mel Gorman (2008 and 2012) and Australia’s first marathon swimming medallist, Kareena Lee (Silver, 2020).
Sloman and Lee are both in outstanding form – Sloman finishing second and Lee a close-up sixth in the World Cup 10km finale in Portugal last weekend while Johnson finished 19th and Gough 27th in the women’s field.
But athletes who have already earned quota places for Paris will not participate in the Doha 10km event, leaving the door open for one of the Australian girls to become only the fourth swimmer to wear the gold cap in the Olympic marathon swim.
TOP THREE: Australia’s top open water trio (L-R) Madeleine Gough, Chelsea Gubecka and Moesha Johnson. Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr Swimming Australia
Gubecka (Yeronga Park, QLD) has been named on a record seventh Australian Open Water World Championship team for the 5km event along with Bianca Crisp (Yeronga Park, QLD), Bailey Armstrong (USC Spartans, QLD) and rookie Robert Thorpe (St Peters Western, QLD).
Swimming Australia’s Open Water High Performance Director, Greg Shaw said that performances over the last 12 months both domestically and internationally had demonstrated that Australia’s top performers could consistently deliver at the highest level.
“Hopefully the momentum can continue to push them to international success and qualification for the Paris Olympics,” said Shaw.
The Dolphins will depart for Doha on January 25th, with the competition starting from February 3 with the Women’s 10km, followed by the Men’s 10km on February 4, the Women’s 5km on February 7 and the Men’s 5km on February 8.