By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
At the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California, Australian freestyler Lani Pallister managed to do something that no swimmer had ever done before: handing Katie Ledecky a loss in the 800 freestyle on the international stage. That race took place about 40 miles from the host site for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Tom Decent of The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the Australian team’s visit to SoFi Stadium, where the swimming events of the 2028 Olympics will be contested in Los Angeles. Several of Australia’s top swimming talents got to take a peek inside the future venue at the future Olympic stage in about two years.
Among those in attendance for the tour was coach Dean Boxall, the ever-eccentric mentor who has helped coach Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan to Olympic glory, though he feels that in two years Pallister will be another swimmer to reach the mountaintop and take down the legendary Ledecky on home soil… again.
“Just think about what [Ledecky] has to do… Everyone will be watching on TV. This will be completely packed.” Boxall said in a report from The Sydney Morning Herald. “It’ll be massive, and that’s got to be on her [mind]. They’ll come to see Katie but we’ve got an Aussie underdog trying to take it out. It could be one of the great steals.”
Boxall added that the Australians, who have developed a well-documented rivalry in the pool with the US over the last decade plus, will come into those Olympics “100% as the underdog,” mentioning that he feels that with all the support that Ledecky will receive, it will be a tall task to take down a swimming giant.
“[Ledecky] will definitely have pressure, and we are 100 percent the underdog. It doesn’t matter what happens over the next 18 months because we have not won an Olympic medal or gold.” Boxall said. “This girl has won four and is going for five golds. It’s unprecedented… on home turf with about 40,000 Americans and 500 foreigners.”
Pallister feels as though she has broken the seal on what is possible heading into the 2028 Olympics, having already taken down Ledecky on her home soil, no longer needing to play the part of a swimmer who had never beaten the best, but now as the only one to have done it in the 800 free in international competition.
“Standing here is unbelievable, but once you’ve also had success in an event, like winning the 800 at Pan Pacs, it’s not daunting coming into trying to beat Katie on home turf,” Pallister said in the report from The Sydney Morning Herald. “If you walk into an Olympics and you’ve never won an event and you’re trying to beat the greatest of all time, that’s a much harder task than repeating a performance you’ve already had. I want to go back to training and start getting into it.”
Boxall states that the Australian team is “not afraid of the American team, and believes that the performance that the Australians had in Irvine is a step in the right direction.
“Can you imagine if you don’t have a great performance at Pan Pacs and you’re a little bit negative? You walk into this environment, and you bring it. We’re coming here with a little bit of confidence. Lani swam unbelievably, and so did all of Australia.” Boxall said. “I was so impressed with Australia here. It shows you once again that underdog mentality Australia has. We didn’t have Mollie, Flynn Southam, Kyle Chalmers… and people stood up. We had no fear. That puts us in good stead for LA. We are not afraid.”
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Aussie Coach Dean Boxall on Pallister and Ledecky at LA28: “It Could be One of the Great Steals”
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