Swimming-Australia launches Olympic charm offensive after poking U.S. bear

By Ian Ransom

(Reuters) - Australia's Olympic swimming head coach Rohan Taylor has praised the United States team as the "standard of the sport" in a bid to ease tensions following a media campaign which hyped up the nations' rivalry in the leadup to the Paris Games.

Australia finished second to the U.S. on the swimming medal table at the Tokyo Olympics and hopes to knock the Americans off top spot for the first time since the 1988 Seoul Games.

U.S. broadcaster NBC stirred the pot recently by showing year-old footage of Australian swimmer Cate Campbell labelling the U.S. team sore losers.

Campbell made the comments during a breakfast TV interview following last year's World Championships in Fukuoka where Australia won more gold medals than the Americans.

While four-times Olympic gold medallist Campbell will not be at Paris, having failed to qualify for a fifth Games, Taylor moved to clear the air.

"I think the Americans are the standard of the sport," he told reporters at his team's training camp in Chartres.

"As far as being the best country, they are and they deserve it, they’ve got the depth, they've got the performances.

"As a whole, in every event, they’ll have somebody who can get on the podium.

"I think when it comes down to relays, obviously we pride ourselves and realise that’s probably where you see a bit more of the team (rivalry) stuff.

"But the respect for the U.S. is huge. We want to be as good as them.

"And so the rivalry probably is more about respect and the fact that we see ourselves as striving to be that good and be that consistently good."

Campbell said her jibes were intended in jest but they fell flat in the U.S.

American swimming great Michael Phelps suggested the U.S. team's swimmers should watch Campbell's interview every day to motivate themselves for Paris.

Apart from the relays, the Games will feature a number of absorbing individual duels between Australian and U.S. swimmers.

Australia's Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky will battle again in the 400 and 800 metres freestyle, while Kaylee McKeown will defend her 100 and 200 metres backstroke titles against American Regan Smith.

Taylor said Australia hoped to improve upon the team's record haul of nine golds and 21 total medals from the Tokyo swimming. The U.S. had 11 golds among their 30 medals.

"I think we have a pretty comparable team (to) Tokyo as far as our rankings," he said.

"This team has earned the expectations. They’ve earned it from Tokyo all the way through.

"Comparing era to era is one thing but what we do have is a lot of strike power and it’s exciting."

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Miral Fahmy)