By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2026 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING TRIALS
Monday, June 8 – Saturday, June 13, 2026 Sydney, Australia Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre LCM (50 meters) Meet Central Commonwealth Selection Criteria Pan Pac Selection Criteria Psych Sheets Live Results Live Stream Storylines To Watch Live Recaps: Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5Should Se-Bom Lee Focus On Backstroke For LA?
Se-Bom Lee broke out as a medley swimmer, qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games in the 400 IM, before qualifying for the world championships team in both the 200 IM and 400 IM in 2022. However, he is yet to set a best time in either event since, and his most recent international team, for the Paris Olympics in 2024, was in the 200 back.
He is not broken 2:00 in the 200 IM since 2023, nor 4:15 in the 400 IM since 2022. However, he took the win in the 200 back today in a new lifetime best of 1:56.75, his first time under 1:57 and under the Priority 3 time of 1:58.07 for the Commonwealth Games. While he does have the 400 IM tomorrow, he did not enter the 200 IM earlier in the week and his 200 back seems both his best event and the one he has been improving the most in over the last few years.
Having not broken his 1:59.53 PB from his junior days until two years ago at the age of 22, he is now nearly three seconds faster. Henry Allan may have something to say about it, but with no one really having nailed down a spot in the backstroke events since the retirement of Mitch Larkin the stroke looks to be Lee’s clearest path to the Olympic team in 2028.
Sam Williamson Is Australia’s Only Male World-Class Breaststroker Right Now
Zac Stubblety-Cook dominated the men’s 200 breast in 2021 and 2022, and was still one the most consistently 2:06-point swimmers through 2023 and 2024. Two gold medals and two silver medals across those four years, in addition to Commonwealth gold in 2022. There were seven 2:06-point swims and one 2:05-point, and with no real threat in the 50 or 100 from Australia, he was their star in the stroke.
If anything, that wasn’t a huge surprise. Not since Christian Sprenger had Australia really had an elite sprint breaststroker. Matt Wilson was briefly a world record-holder in 2019. Although Joshua Yong was 58-point in the 100 on relays twice at the Paris Olympics, but no Australian man other than Sam Williamson has broken 59 seconds since Sprenger in 2014.
Stubblety-Cook was injured for much of last season, with his season best from this meet in 2025 standing at 2:09.09, and he did not swim at the world championships. He took the win again in the 200 breast at Australian Trials, his sixth consecutive win but at 2:08.92 this was his slowest winning time other than last year. Having failed to break 1:00 in the 100 breast as well, he is no longer a gold-medal favorite for the Commonwealth Games.
He no longer has the same closing speed as before, coming back in just 1:06.19 here, and his front-end speed has never been his strong suit. With his seeming decline, Sam Williamson is left as the only other elite breaststroke for the Australian men this year. Their depth has not looked too strong, with the runner-up finishes in each event being 27.37 in the 50, 1:00.33 in the 100, and 2:09.84 in the 200.
Relying on a breaststroker, of all strokes, to return strongly from a knee injury to give them any kind of medal hopes in the stroke wouldn’t have been the goal for Swimming Australia at the start of the season. Unfortunately, the depth doesn’t look like turning around much before LA in two years time.
Sienna Toohey Is The Bellwether For Australian Women’s Breaststroke
It may be a lot to put onto a 17-year-old, but Sienna Toohey really is the measure by which Australian women’s breaststroke will be judged right now.
Ella Ramsay and Tara Kinder are both high-level breaststrokers, but neither quite has the speed to break into the 2:20-2:21 zone that is required to be at the sharp end internationally. They both clocked 2:24-low here, with Ramsay just coming out on top, but right now neither one is troubling international podiums.
After her 1:05.97 in the 100 breast earlier this week, Toohey dropped another PB in the 200 out of lane 1. Her swim of 2:25.24 knocked over a second off the 2:26.43 she swam two months ago, and is nearly three seconds faster than the 2:27.92 she swam last season.
She is probably the only Australian swimmer in the event currently who looks as though their ceiling is still some way away. Pushing on from making her first senior international team last summer was not a given, but now that she has, she will be the swimmer all eyes are on. Leisel Jones still owns the Australian records in both the 100 breast and 200 breast from all the way back in 2006. Of anyone right now, Toohey looks most likely to take one off her.
Short And Pallister Could Be Special This Summer
Although Lani Pallister still has the 1500 free to go tomorrow, there has been a clear theme among both her and Sam Short‘s swims so far this week. They have been absolutely blistering on the first half of their races.
Short was out under world record pace in the 400 free at halfway, under world record pace at halfway in the 800, and under world record pace at halfway in the 1500 today. Pallister was out 1:56.81 in her 400 free, and in 4:02.32 in her 800 free. Both of them set significant lifetime bests in the 200 free as well.
Their speed over shorter distances is clearly there, and probably the best it has ever been for either of them. They have gone out hard, hit the wall, and carried on. Decent chunks of the second half of their races were spent in what Short would refer to as “the hurt locker”.
Short’s first 800 was 7:42.70 in the 1500 free today. That is less than three seconds off the bronze medal-winning time from the world championships last summer, and 2.48 seconds faster than Bobby Finke was in his world record-setting swim at Paris 2024. Going out fast like that doesn’t make sense in a major final unless you think you can hold onto the pace. That Short and Pallister have done the former here suggests they are looking for the latter in a few weeks’ time.
Mollie O’Callaghan Needs More Front-End Speed To Break 52
Mollie O’Callaghan has broken 52.5 on eight occasions in the 100 free over the last four years. Her fastest opening 50 split? A 25.50 at the 2023 Australian Trials. Her 25.54 opening 50 here was her third-fastest, and she was then yet again under 27 seconds on the second 50 to storm home for the win.
But she ranks just third in the world so far this season with her 52.33 from today. The top two? Anna Moesch thanks to her 51.94 from the AP Race International last month, and Marrit Steenbergen with her 51.86 from the Mare Nostrum tour.
Neither of them are going out 25.5. Steenbergen was 24.96 opening her swim, while Moesch was 25.18. They may not be storming home quite as quick as O’Callaghan, who has a pair of 26.45 second 50s and a 26.41 from the Fukuoka World Championships, but they don’t need to be.
O’Callaghan can break 52 seconds while not blasting out on the opening 50. But her margin to do so is razor-thin unless she can drop a couple of tenths on the front half.
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