A brief history of the Team USA vs. Australia swimming rivalry and how it reignited before the Paris Olympics

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. This is FTW Explains: The Olympics. If you’re a fan of Olympic swimming, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the long-standing rivalry between the U.S. and Australia, and you’re curious what that’s all about. We’re here to help.

In the pool, the USA versus Australia rivalry runs deep. While no country has historically dominated the modern Olympic Games like the U.S., Australia is a massive swimming powerhouse, producing some of the best to ever compete.

“It is a rivalry that is pretty healthy for the most part,” now-two-time Olympian Regan Smith told For The Win. “I think some people always like to turn things into something ugly, and me personally, I’m not interested in that. Most of the people I’m close with on the USA and on Australia have a lot of healthy, mutual respect for each other.

“I think that’s what produces the best, rivalries, I’d say. And overall, I think the rivalry between USA and Australia just makes the sport more entertaining to watch. And at the end of the day, that’s what we all want. We just want more viewership in swimming, we want more people talking about it. And the way to do that is to have really, really exciting races that come down to the very last meter.”

With several superstar swimmers at the Paris Olympics, particularly on the women’s side, Australia is looking to dethrone the U.S. and win more Olympic medals — a feat that hasn’t happened since the 1956 Melbourne Games, per the Australian Associated Press.

So before these two teams go up against each other and the rest of the world in Paris, here’s a breakdown of the history and what’s at stake.

A brief history of the swimming rivalry between Team USA and Australia

On the Olympic stage, the U.S. and Australia are historically the two strongest delegations with the most hardware, by a long shot. And both sides have traded jabs and trash-talking quotes with each other over the decades.

Overall, Team USA swimming has earned 257 gold medals and 579 total, while Australia is second with 69 gold and 212 total, as NBC Sports noted. For perspective, East Germany has 92 total medals, Japan is fourth with 83 and Great Britain is fifth with 79.

However, at 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Australia won 13 swimming gold medals to Team USA’s seven. But the Americans still won more medals than the Aussies, 38-35.

On repeating that success in Paris, Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor recently said the Australian Olympic team “is going to give it a good shake”. More from Taylor, via the Australian Associated Press:

“[T]he Americans, there’s a reason they haven’t been beaten since 1956 – they’re just extremely competent when it comes to the Olympics, this is where they step up.

“They have got the depth, they’ve got the numbers, they’ve got the experience.

“We’re going to go there and do everything we can to create an environment for these (Australian) athletes, first and foremost, to do their best.”

USA vs. Australia and the Duel in the Pool

While the rivalry between Team USA and Australia spans decades, it produced one of the best swimming competitions ever outside of the Games.

A must-watch event for diehard swimming fans, the Duel in the Pool was a bi-annual meet pitting the best swimmers against each other just for fun. First, it was just Team USA against Australia in 2003, 2005 and 2007, but from 2009 to 2015, the event was expanded to Team USA versus Europe. And the Americans dominated.

After an unfortunate hiatus, Duel in the Pool returned in 2022 and went back to its roots with USA-Australia in Sydney, and the Americans continued to come out on top. The U.S. won every Duel in the Pool and has an 8-0 record.

Bring. This. Event. Back.

How the USA-Australian swimming rivalry was reignited before the Paris Olympics

Last summer for swimming world championships, NBC broadcast a graphic of the medal count, highlighting the overall medal total with the U.S. in the lead, rather than gold-medal rankings, which would have had Australia at No. 1.

Four-time Olympian and eight-time Olympic medalist Cate Campbell — who at 32 years old missed qualifying for Paris — took issue with the graphic. Talking to a local Australian TV station, she called Americans “such sore losers” in response to the medal count graphic.

More from Campbell’s 2023 interview:

“Australia coming out on top is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America. There were a couple of nights, particularly the first night of competition, where we did not have to hear [the] ‘Star Spangled Banner’ ring out through the stadium, and I cannot tell you how happy that made me. If I never hear that song again, it will be too soon. And so, bring on Paris, that’s all I have to say: U.S., stop being sore losers.”

Campbell also slammed Team USA’s frequent use of a cowbell — sometimes heard on Olympic and international competition broadcasts — before an American swimmer races. She added:

“When we’re right next to each other in the warm-up areas, the U.S. [has] this infernal cowbell that they ring, and as someone leaves to go to the competition pool, they ring out ‘U-S-A, U-S-A!’ And I have never wanted to punch someone more and steal that cowbell.”

Unsurprisingly, outspoken Team USA swimmer and five-time Olympic medalist Lilly King responded to Campbell at the time:

But Cate Campbell’s ‘sore losers’ and anti-cowbell comments were in 2023. What does that have to do with the Paris Olympics?

Well, that’s where Olympic broadcaster NBC comes into play again. Seemingly reigniting the rivalry right before the 2024 Games, NBC showed a clip of Campbell’s comments to 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and shared his reaction on social media.

“I appreciate your comments, Cate,” Phelps said in response with a smirk. He added:

“If somebody said that to me, I would lose it. I would literally make them eat every word they just said about me. Because people have done it; Chad Le Clos, [Ian] Thorpe — you guys have all talked [expletive] about me, and I had the last laugh.

“So for the Americans, if you see what I just saw — that’s the first time I saw it — I would watch that thing every single day to give me that little extra bit of just oomph.”

Clips of Campbell’s nearly year-old interview and Phelps’ recent reaction have been circulating around social media since June, intensifying the USA-Australia rivalry.

Team USA has since responded with promises of more cowbell

After the men’s 100-meter freestyle final at U.S. Olympic trials in June, Hunter Armstrong — who qualified for the 4×100 freestyle relay — said: “We do want that [relay] world record, but most importantly, we need more cowbell.”

While the Indianapolis crowd loved his comment, he wasn’t the only Team USA swimmer to chime in about the cowbell. Now-three-time Olympian and Team USA captain Abbey Weitzeil was asked at trials about Campbell’s comments resonating with the team, and she said:

“We’re all bringing the cowbell. Whenever comments are made about your country or your jobs, it’s all competitive, and I think we all are competitive, our competitive side comes out, so we’re all bringing the cowbell, extra loud!”

So, expect more cowbell from Team USA at the Paris Olympics.

Has Team USA said anything about Campbell’s comments or the USA-Australian rivalry at the Paris Olympics?

Yes, but they didn’t say much. Here’s more from Weitzeil in Paris on Wednesday, basically saying Campbell’s comments kind of work as bulletin-board material, but only so much.

Top USA-Australia Olympic swimming races to watch in Paris

While relays are always must-see events at the Olympics, there are a few individual races that will really highlight the USA-Australian rivalry.

One is Katie Ledecky versus Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle events. Titmus won gold at the 2021 Tokyo Games in the 200 free and 400 free, beating Ledecky in the latter. But in the 800 three years ago, Ledecky topped Titmus for gold and silver, respectively. Ledecky is favored to win her fourth straight Olympic gold in the 800, but Titmus is the world record holder in the 400 and has the fastest time in the world this year, about three seconds ahead of Ledecky.

And in the 400, both Ledecky and Titmus will also have to race Canada’s Summer McIntosh with the third fastest time this year.

Other rivalry events to watch include women’s backstroke with American Regan Smith and Australian Kaylee McKeown, as the two have been trading world records for years. Since 2019, both swimmers have broken the women’s 100-meter backstroke world record twice, and they combine to have the top-10 fastest times ever in the event. Smith broke the 100 back world record in 2019 before McKeown stole it in 2021 and lowered it in 2023. But at U.S. trials, Smith took it back.

About her individual rivalry with McKeown, Smith said she’s “proud” it exists.

“She’s been an absolutely stellar competitor for years,” Smith told For The Win. “The first time competed against her, we were like 15 and 16 years old, so I’ve known her and have grown with her for, gosh, like seven years now, which is really crazy to say. So I’d say, when it, when you boil it down, it’s just a very healthy respect that we both have for each other.”

In Tokyo, McKeown swept the 100 and 200 backstroke while Smith took bronze in the 100 — she didn’t swim the 200 — and they’ll race each other in both events in Paris.

Other top Australian swimmers to watch include Kyle Chalmers (100 free), Mollie O’Callaghan (100 free, 200 free), Emma McKeon (100 butterfly) and Zac Stubblety-Cook (200 breaststroke).