Australia keep pace with United States amid wacky races at Duel in the Pool

Over the years, the Aquatics Centre at Sydney Olympic Park has played host to some of the most iconic moments in Australian swimming history. Think Ian Thorpe breaking the world record to win gold in the men’s 400m freestyle at the 2000 Olympics, Grant Hackett overcoming Kieren Perkins in the 1500m a week later or Stephanie Rice breaking two medley world records at the Olympic trials to foreshadow her dominance before a golden 2008 Games. These feats and more are immortalised in a hall of fame as fans walk through the venue’s entrance.

Day two of the 2022 Duel in the Pool between Australia and the United States, the first night in the pool after Friday’s open-water relay at Bondi Beach, was never going to match that illustrious past. After a punishing 12 months for Australia – the Tokyo Olympics (this time last year the Dolphins were barely out of hotel quarantine), the world championships in Budapest in June and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – expectations were modest. But it took only a few minutes on Saturday night for a parochial crowd to raise the roof and reaffirm the nation’s love for live swimming.

Duel in the Pool may be a gimmicky, made-for-television product, full of delightfully strange rules, a world away from the staid seriousness of a major international titles. Yet as Australia trailed the Americans with two legs remaining in the opening race of the evening – the mixed 4x100m medley relay – the roar from the crowd said it all.

A 3,500-odd crowd willed Olympic superstar Emma McKeon and 18-year-old freestyle sensation Mollie O’Callaghan home for Australia to claim a first victory of the night. There are no gold medals on offer this weekend but the Dolphins mean business all the same. “The energy and