Duel In The Pool Kicks Off In Bondi Beach
The 2022 Dual in the Pool event – a competition between Team Australia versus Team USA – will kickoff with an 4x800m point-to-point ocean relay in Bondi Beach on August 19th.
That is cool. Very very cool and a far cry from the last Dual in the Pool competition (in 2007) that did not have an open water swimming event (in those pre-Olympic 10K Marathon Swim days).
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Team USA won a total of 30 medals and Team Australia won a total of 21 medals, both far out-podiuming Team Great Britain (with 8 medals), China (with 6 medals), and Russia (with 5 medals). USA and Australia won 46% of all the available Olympic medals over 37 medals.
“It is the first time ocean swimming will be included in the Dual and it is a testament to the recent boom in ocean swimming,” said Swimming Australia CEO Eugenie Buckley. “Ocean swimming has grown significantly in recent times, due to the pandemic and lockdown periods, so it is great to see the event being kicked off at one of the most renowned beaches in the world with the open relay event.”
In addition, paraswimmers will also compete for the first time in the Duel in the Pool history.
“We are excited for the historic opportunity to partner with Swimming Australia and USA Swimming to include Para athletes in the Duel in the Pool for the first time,” U.S. Paralympics Swimming Director Erin Popovich said. “By bringing together many of the world’s top Olympic and Paralympic swimmers to race alongside one another at such a prestigious event, we are writing another chapter in the longstanding rivalry and camaraderie between two powerhouse swimming nations. It will show the world the fierce drive that athletes of all abilities bring to the pool.”
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