When it comes to competitive swimming, Australia performs incredibly well. The United States is the only country to have more gold medals in swimming than Australia, which says something when you compare the size of the Olympic teams present at the games and the relative populations of the two countries.
For context, the United States is at the top of the medal tables across all sports in the Summer Olympics, with Australia in tenth. However, when you look at the medal tables, you'll quickly see that over 40% of Australia's gold medals come from swimming, with the numbers being similar and comparable for the silver and bronze medals.
Swimming is a big part of Australia's effort at the Olympic Games, and the medal haul skews towards female swimmers, too. If you were to rank Australian swimmers in the same way the Olympic Games order their medal tables (sorted first by gold, then silver, then bronze), you'd see that 7 of Australia's most decorated Olympians in swimming are women.
We've used the same logic here. Here are Australia's best female swimmers. We initially planned to include just 10, but 3 swimmers are in joint ninth place, so you'll get a bonus swimmer. There's no fair way to separate such greatness when the bar starts at three-time Olympic gold medallists!
Dawn Fraser
With 4 Olympic gold medals, Drawn Fraser is Australia's second-most successful swimmer at the games. These medals were won across the games in 1956, 1960, and 1964.
Her triple 100m freestyle gold medals across three games make her one of four swimmers to have ever won individual gold medals for the same event at three successive Olympic games.
Fraser is one of the swimmers who, importantly, brought home swimming gold medals at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.
Shane Gould
Shane Gould, one of Australia’s most celebrated swimmers, won three gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, setting world records in each event: the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 200m individual medley.
She also claimed a silver in the 800m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m freestyle, making her the first athlete to win medals in five individual Olympic events and the only one to hold every freestyle world record from 100m to 1500m simultaneously. She retired at 16, overwhelmed by the fame her remarkable achievements brought.
Petria Thomas
Petria Thomas is another incredibly successful Australian swimmer. Born in 1975, she competed at the Olympic Games in 1996, 2000, and 2004.
Her gold medals came in her third Olympic Games in Athens 2004 in the 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle, and 4x100m medley. She was Australia's flag carrier at the closing ceremony that year.
Here's Petria Thomas claiming Olympic Selection against Susie O'Neill.
Leisel Jones
Leisel Jones is a three-time gold medallist and Olympic swimmer representing Australia at four Olympic Games between 2000 and 2012.
She won silver medals in the 2000 Sydney games, but her gold medals came in the 4x100m medley in Athens 2004 and the 100m breaststroke and 4x100m medley in Beijing 2008.
The Olympic Games 2012 were her last, as she retired from competitive swimming in the same year.
Watch Leisel Jones at the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montréal.
Jodie Henry
Jodie Henry was the 2004 Australian Swimmer of the Year following her performance at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
She won three gold medals in the 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, and 4x100m medley events. However, an issue with her pelvis prevented her from competing in the 2008 Olympic Games, and she retired from swimming in 2009.
Stephanie Rice
Every swimmer on our list has at least three gold medals, and Stephanie Rice is no exception. She won three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, setting world records in all 3 events. She triumphed in the 200- and 400-meter individual medleys and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. Notably, she shattered the 400-meter medley world record by 1.67 seconds with a time of 4:29.45, becoming the first woman to break the 4:30 mark.
Rice also competed in the 2012 Olympic Games in London and retired from competitive swimming in 2014.
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Libby Trickett
Libby Trickett is another incredible female swimmer who represented Australia at the Olympics. She competed in the Games in 2004, 2008, and 2012.
In Athens in 2004, she won the gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle. In Beijing 2008, she won gold medals in the 100m butterfly and the 4x100m medley, silver in the 100m freestyle, and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle.
In 2009, she announced her retirement from competitive swimming. However, she came out of retirement in 2010 and went on to compete in the Olympic Games in London in 2012. She won her fourth Olympic gold medal at these games as part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team.
Libby Trickett came out of retirement and won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, UK.
In 2013, she retired for a second and final time.
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Emily Seebohm
Emily Seebohm participated in four separate Olympic Games: Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020, which occurred in 2021 following the pandemic.
She's a former world record holder for the 50m backstroke long course and the 100m individual medley short course.
Though 2024 would be her fifth Olympic Games, she's yet to confirm whether or not she's retired and may still be training to make it to the games in Paris.
Watch Seebohm setting the 50m backstroke all-comers record.
Cate Campbell
Cate Campbell pips Trickett as Australia's third most successful Olympic swimmer by a single bronze medal.
Campbell was born in Malawi in 1992 but moved to Australia in 2001. In Australia, she took up competitive swimming and went on to represent the country at the Olympics, World Championships, and Commonwealth Games.
If you hadn't heard of Campbell or watched any Olympic swimming, you might have seen her as one of Australia's flagbearers at the Tokyo Games.
Though her gold medals were from 2012, 2016, and 2021 (remember that the games were hosted a year late due to the global pandemic), she also participated in the 2008 games. She's looking to compete at the 2024 games, making her the first-ever Australian swimmer to appear at five separate Olympic Games.
Competition for spaces on the Australian Olympic swimming team is fierce, though, so it won't be easy for Campbell, but as an incredibly talented swimmer, it's not impossible.
Watch the raw passion and emotion of Cate Campbell breaking the 100m World Record.
See how you can take exceptional swimming lessons in Newcastle here.
Emma McKeon
Currently, Emma McKeon is Australia's most successful Olympic swimmer. With 5 gold medals, she shares this title with Ian Thorpe, though her overall medal haul is greater. Thorpe has 3 silver medals and a bronze, whereas McKeon has 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.
An important difference between the two is that Thorpe, born in 1982, has retired from competitive swimming. Conversely, McKeon is looking to Paris 2024 and retains the possibility of getting that coveted sixth gold medal.
In 2016, she won gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, a feat repeated in 2020. At the Tokyo games, she also won gold in the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, and 4x100m medley relay.
She plans to compete in Paris 2024 and has even said that she'll be quicker, which is saying a lot since her gold medal victories in Tokyo were all Olympic or World Records.
Check out some highlights from her career (so far) here.
Kaylee McKeown
Kaylee McKeown is a young and talented swimmer with three Olympic gold medals. At her first Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, she picked up gold medals in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, and the 4x100m medley.
Born in 2001, there is still plenty of time for her to add to the already impressive Australian swimming team's collection of Olympic medals, and she is a strong medal contender at the Paris Olympic Games this year.
Watch Kaylee McKeown set a new World Record here.
Australian Swimmers to Look Out for at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
We've already mentioned Kaylee McKeown and Emma McKeon, but there are other swimmers to watch.
When the Australian trials are held in Brisbane between June 10 and 15, we'll know exactly who Australia will send to the Olympic Games since the top two finishers from each event will be chosen.
Until then, here are some other swimmers who performed well at the Australian Open Championships in April this year and are likely to make it to the Olympic Games.
Mollie O'Callaghan
Mollie O'Callaghan already has two Olympic gold medals from the 2020 Tokyo Games: the 4x100m freestyle and the 4x100m medley. She also won the bronze medal in the 4x200m freestyle.
At the World Championships (LC) in Budapest in 2022, she also won three gold medals in the 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, and the 4x100m mixed freestyle.
She has eight gold medals at the World Championships (LC), three at the World Championships (SC), and five at the most recent Commonwealth Games. Everything she's won has been between 2020 and now.
More recently, at the Australian Open Championships in April, she finished first in the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke.
Watch Mollie O'Callaghan beat the 200m freestyle World Record.
Ariarne Titmus
With two gold medals from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (in 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle) and an impressive showing at the Australian Open Championship, Ariarne Titmus is poised to go to the Olympics. At the Open in Brisbane, she came first in the 400m freestyle and the 800m freestyle.
Here's Titmus winning the 400m freestyle in the 2020 Olympic Games.
In recent World Championships (LC), she's won gold medals in the 200m backstroke (2022 and 2023), 50m backstroke (2023), and 100m backstroke (2023).
At the World Championships (SC) in 2022 in Melbourne, she also won three gold medals in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, and 4x50m medley. The same year, she won four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 4x100m medley, and 4x100m mixed medley.
She holds records for the long-course 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, and short-course 200m backstroke; if she keeps up her current performances, we'll see her in Paris this summer.
The list could go on and on, and we could have easily included plenty of other excellent female Australian swimmers, including those who were less successful in medals but far more successful when considering their impact on swimming in Australia. Pretty much any of the women who won medals at the games in Melbourne in 1956 could be considered hugely successful as they put Australia on its current trajectory of being one of the greatest swimming nations in the world.
Without the boom in popularity following those victories from female and male swimmers, we may never have seen such successful athletes at the later Olympic Games or developed such successful swimming programs in the country! Young girls could choose any of these athletes as a source of inspiration for swimming.
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