Australia poke US bear to ramp up swimming rivalry for Olympic Games

Cowbells. Australia’s Olympic swimmers could be hearing them in their sleep, and definitely will be hearing them in their waking hours at the Paris Olympic pool, after the US-Australian rivalry ignited this week.

Comments that Australia’s former sprint queen Cate Campbell made last year about the sweetness of beating the US team and their “infernal cowbell” were the talk of the US swimming trials that finished in Indianapolis earlier this week.

Australia is generally not the focus of USA Swimming at its biggest showcase event, but Campbell’s comments were dragged up by Olympic broadcaster NBC to pour fuel on a fire that had been gently smouldering for nearly a year, since Australia beat the US on the gold medal tally at the world championships in Fukuoka. It was only the second time that had happened at a global showdown since the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

Related: Michael Phelps says US athletes losing faith in Wada before Paris Olympics

Egged on by Nine presenter Karl Stefanovic, Campbell described the Americans as sore losers (because the USA orders the medal tally according to total medals – a contest they never lose because of their unrivalled depth – rather than gold medals as the rest of the world does). She then decried the US team’s ringing of a cowbell to send their athletes out to compete, and said she was delighted not to hear the Star Spangled Banner on the opening night.

All of this was said in jest, her tongue firmly in cheek, but tell that to Gary Hall Jr, who wrote an otherwise glowing article about Australia in the lead-up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, which happened to mention that he believed the US 4x100m freestyle relay team would smash Australia “like guitars”. Context is the first casualty of sporting rivalry.

NBC commentator and US Olympic gold medallist Rowdy Gaines said the US team would use Campbell’s words – serious or not – as extra motivation for Paris.

“Cowbells are selling out over here,” Gaines joked. “I don’t think it [the rivalry] would be near what it is now if not for Cate. I loved what she said. That kind of statement is just awesome because it gets everyone fired up and more people watch swimming.

“Rivalry is important to Americans. It’s the epitome of sports attraction here, and we don’t really have many rivalries in swimming. When I was swimming, it was Russia, but now the Australian team is so good. This has built up because of last summer, when Australia kicked America’s butt. Getting beaten on the gold medal count fired our swimmers up.”

Will it be a major factor in Paris? “Once that fuse is lit, it can’t be stamped out,” he said. “From America’s point of view, and NBC’s, it’s a big deal. That Cate Campbell video will get replayed a lot.”

“Cowbell” was already becoming code for the rivalry among swimmers on the pool deck in Indianapolis, where the US finally revealed their strength at their nine-day trials meet. On paper, they have more firepower than the Australians and going into the Games, they have swimmers seeded No 1 in the world in seven individual events and they will be favoured to win four relays, compared with Australia’s five No 1 rankings and two relays. That’s an 11-7 split if the competition follows the form guide, but no ranking system survives contact with actual racing.

USA

Women

800m freestyle: Katie Ledecky (Summer McIntosh will not swim the event)

1500m freestyle: Katie Ledecky

100m backstroke: Regan Smith

100m butterfly: Gretchen Walsh

Men

100m backstroke: Ryan Murphy

200m backstroke: Ryan Murphy

400m individual medley: Carson Foster

Australia

Women

200m freestyle: Ariarne Titmus

400m freestyle: Ariarne Titmus

200m backstroke: Kaylee McKeown

200m individual medley: Kaylee McKeown

Men

50m freestyle: Cameron McEvoy

The rest of the world will have a substantial say in the medal carve-up, particularly China. What the direct comparison between the US and Australian trials reveals is that the US is a more balanced team, with as many male as female medal contenders.

Australia is very dependent on its powerful women’s team and will have to lift just to get on terms with the US. But there is every chance the Americans will rise as well. Swimmers like Mollie O’Callaghan (100m freestyle), Kyle Chalmers (100m freestyle) and Sam Short (400m/800m freestyle), who all won world titles in Fukuoka last year but did not show their peak form at the Australian trials, will need to find that extra gear in Paris, as will defending Olympic 200m breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook.

It is incredibly rare for a team to convert every gold medal chance at the Olympics. Anything over 50% is generally a good result, but that won’t be enough to overcome the might of the US team over nine days. Australia will have to win most of the key match ups to turn its ambition into reality. As Australian head coach Rohan Taylor says, this is the America’s Cup of swimming, and his team is perennially the underdog.

Related: Dressel and Ledecky win again at US Olympic swim trials, Kate Douglass too

It’s worth remembering that at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australia famously won the battle for the men’s 4x100m freestyle title (lowering the US colours for the first time in history), but the US won the war (14-5 on the gold medal count). Ultimately, the American swimmers thrived on the threat to their supremacy.

Michael Klim, who led that Australia relay team and spoke to the Paris team on the first day of their orientation camp in Brisbane last week, can certainly see similarities with the lead-up to Sydney. He said the Australian team’s chances of success would “come down to the maturity of the team to deal with the media frenzy”.

“The US have the right to use this as motivation but, fortunately for Australia, they don’t have a personality like Michael Phelps or Gary Hall to lead them this time,” he said. “But then, they just have to keep doing what they are doing and rely on their superior depth. Let’s hope [the trash-talking] brings out the best in our swimmers and we see some amazing swimming out of it.”

In Sydney, the guitar became the unlikely symbol of swimming’s greatest rivalry. In Paris, it may well be the cowbell.