“Stop being sore losers.”
“The US has one hell of a cowbell that it rings. When someone leaves to go to the competition pool, they shout: ‘USA, USA’. I’ve never wanted to punch someone and steal their cowbell so much. I really hope someone did this.”
Those are the fighting words that reignited a rivalry that goes back decades. Australian swimmer Cate Campbell attacked the US swim team last year after the 2023 world swimming championships, in which the US won the most medals but Australia won the most gold medals. “Australia coming out on top of the world is one thing, but it’s so much sweeter to beat America,” the four-time Olympian said during an interview on Today Show in Australia.
It was the first time Australia had won more gold medals than the USA in more than two decades and had won the most medals in its history at a major international meet, so the celebration was understandable – but perhaps not excusable.
Campbell’s comments set the stage for renewed interest in the battle between the two great swimming nations, who have competed for the top medal count at every recent World Championships and Olympics.
“I think we need to go back to 1956; that was the last time Australia was number 1 in the world in swimming,” says NBC commentator and former Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines. That’s according to World Aquatics, which ranks the countries in swimming using a points system that takes into account the results in the final and semi-final races, he says.
But the battle for most medals at world events versus most gold medals is what keeps the tension between the US and Australia alive, and it likely intensified in the years leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Summer Sanders , who won gold in the 200m butterfly at the 1992 Olympics, remembers that her biggest rival was Australian Susan O’Neill, from Australia, who won silver. “Whenever an Australian ran a race, the team would shout ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Hi, Hi, Hi’ and it was like nails on a chalkboard,” she says. “Whenever I heard that, it cheered me up; I would be very angry about that.”
At the 2000 Games, in front of an Australian crowd, American sprinter Gary Hall predicted that the US men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team would “crush [the Australians] like guitars.” After all, the US had won the event seven times before these games. When the Australians emerged victorious to break the American streak, Australian Michael Klim played an air guitar on deck to taunt the US team.
Nathan Adrian, a three-time Olympian and eight-time Olympic medalist, remembers being first introduced to the rivalry as a junior national swimmer in 2015. “These guys had this really cool, amazing accent and said, ‘Hey man, We’re going to crush you in that relay,’” says Adrian.
As far as he remembers, it was in 2016 that Americans rang the cow bell. “I don’t think it was intended to be annoying, but that’s literally what we did; Maybe it was a Pavlovian response, but when you heard the bell it meant someone from Team USA was coming up, so give them your energy. And it worked. The fact that I pissed everyone off is a side effect.”
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The superiority intensifies during relay races, especially in freestyle matches, in which Australia often has a slight advantage.
“At the end of the day it’s a lot of fun,” says Lilly King, who is competing in her third Olympics in Paris as the world record holder in the 100m breaststroke. “I love small talk, I think it’s fun, I think it’s healthy. It’s kind of light-hearted, but there’s also a bit of mischief behind it, which is something I definitely like.” King points out that Campbell didn’t compete at the World Championships this year and “didn’t remotely contribute to it, so keep your mouth shut — that’s where I’m getting at,” she says. Since she made her comments, Campbell has failed to make the Australian squad for Paris.
Kaylee McKeown, a backstroker who will swim in Paris, acknowledged the friendly rivalry between the countries, but criticized Campbell for the harshness of his comments. “I think there is a right way and a wrong way to say things. Cate is entitled to her opinion, but I just want the USA to know that she is not speaking on behalf of the entire Australian team. I don’t like being called a sore loser on our behalf, so I can’t imagine how [the Americans] would feel,” she told the Daily Telegraph in a virtual interview.
Campbell has since attributed his comments to a misunderstanding and said they were “not meant to be disrespectful. I need to understand that not everyone understands the Australian sense of humour,” she told Sydney Morning. Herald.
For athletes like King, the trash talk and taunts only help push her further into the pool. “I’ve never said anything to someone’s face. And we get along well. But in the end we are competitors and we want to win as many medals as possible.” Just hours after Campbell’s comments circulated online last year, King responded on social media: “Sorry, we’re not so uptight that we can’t cheer on our teammates as they head out to events. See you in Paris.
King fulfilled that promise, while Campbell did not. Let the Games begin – and the rivalry continue.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
