When it comes to swimming at the Olympics, the United States has long been the undisputed king of the pool. With 257 gold medals and 579 total medals, American swimmers have set a gold standard that’s hard to beat. Australia, with 69 golds and 212 medals, is a distant second, but don’t count them out just yet. Australia has made quite some progress in recent years, and the 2020 Tokyo Games were emblematic of a pivotal moment in this journey.

Take Ariarne Titmus from Australia, for instance. The swimmer surprised everyone by surpassing her American rival, Katie Ledecky, in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle events. And the story didn’t end just there—Titmus continued to excel, breaking the world record for the 200-meter freestyle at the Olympic trials. This achievement showed that Australia is truly making a splash on the stage, set to leave a mark once and for all. But the comeback speaks of a different hero… Torri Huske, who placed fourth in the 100-meter butterfly event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, made a strong return.

After clinching gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 100m freestyle, she contributed to gold medals in both the mixed 400m medley relay and the 400m medley relay at the Paris Olympics. Most recently, Huske revealed what was behind her winning mindset, especially in the relay team. Swimswam recently interviewed her on his YouTube channel, titled, “Torri Huske on Winning Gold, Relay Starts, and The Public Under-appreciating Silver/Bronze.”

When the host asked, “Your first final swim is the 400 free relay. How did you approach that relay, obviously knowing that the Australian women were pretty daunting but also considering that the US women had a ton of momentum in that event specifically?”

Torri Huske replied, “Yeah, I think that going into it, we really wanted to set the American record, and we did that. So, I just like to stay focused on my own race for the most part. In the past, like with relays, I’ve gone like really freaked out over sometimes. It’s like the other teams around me or if it’s just like myself and like the pressure of it, so I really was just like, I’m just going to try to stay in my lane and swim my race—how I need to swim it, so that’s kind of just what I was focusing on.”

Torri joined forces with Walsh and swimmers Ryan Murphy and Nic Fink in the 4×100 meters relay to clinch the gold medal and establish a new world record. Huske’s impressive 51.88-second performance in freestyle was unparalleled, propelling the U.S. team to finish at 3:37.43 and surpass Britain’s world record. To end the Games on a good note, Huske led the women’s 4x100m medley relay team, with Regan Smith, Lilly King, and Walsh, to claim another gold medal and set a world record of 3:49.63. They outperformed their record set in 2019, with Australia and China taking home the silver and bronze medals, respectively. This rivalry of USA vs. Australia was certainly well-established before the Paris Olympics began.

Campbell sparks U.S.-Australia swimming rivalry

Before the Paris Olympics started, the Australians weren’t pleased when NBC’s Peacock showed the Olympic swimming leaderboard by overall medal count, favoring the U.S., instead of the usual ranking by gold medals, which favored Australia. This prompted Australian swimmer Cate Campbell to voice her frustration on Australia’s Today Show. “I mean, Australia coming out on top of the world is one thing, but it is just so much sweeter beating America,” Campbell said.

She added that not hearing the U.S. national anthem after the first night of competition made her especially happy, even going as far as to say, “If I hear that song again, it will be too soon.” Campbell’s frustrations didn’t stop there—she also vented about Team USA’s noisy cowbell and patriotic chant in the warm-up area, quipping, “I never wanted to punch someone more.”

The fallout from Campbell’s comments made waves. U.S. swimming legend Michael Phelps didn’t hold back when shown a clip of the interview, declaring, “If somebody said that to me, I would lose it.” Phelps suggested Team USA use the clip as daily motivation for the Paris Games, recalling how trash talk from rivals like Ian Thorpe fueled his own competitive fire. With the intensity of this U.S.-Australia rivalry heating up, it’s clear the battle in the pool is only getting fiercer.