Cate Campbell to miss Commonwealth Games, as world championships shifted to 2023

Cate Campbell will skip this year's Commonwealth Games while pondering her swimming future amid rejigged Australian plans for the pool in Birmingham.

Campbell is taking time off ahead of deciding whether to try to compete at a fifth Olympic Games, in Paris in 2024.

Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor says Campbell, a six-time Commonwealth gold medallist, will not be at the Birmingham Games in July and August.

«Cate Campbell won't be swimming but primarily we will have a very strong team, that is our plan,» Taylor said.

«The open conversation is 'go away, have a think, then come back to me and tell me what I can do to provide support for you'.

»Obviously I don't want anyone to finish swimming if they have got the motivation and desire — it's always that encouragement to really spend time before they [retire].

«Cate and I have had a number of chats … so I am very aware of her strategies.»

Taylor hatched plans for the year that did not include the world championships slated for May in Japan, well ahead of Wednesday's official postponement of the meet by the sport's governing body.

«We pretty much knew that was coming,» Taylor said of FINA pushing the world titles back to July next year.

«As soon as we got wind … we just immediately went to work in preparation for what that impact will be for us.»

An Adelaide meet in April was to serve as a selection opportunity for the worlds but now event winners will gain automatic selection for the Commonwealth Games.

Two further meets on the weekend of June 18-19 — one in Sydney and another in Monaco — will double as selection meets for Birmingham.

«The reason for doing that is we have some people coming back from injury, coming back on late prep from the Olympics,» Taylor said.

«We wanted to