Zac Stubblety-Cook, the reigning Olympic champion and World Record holder in the men’s 200m breast, is experiencing slightly different weather than he’s accustomed to in his native Australia.
The 24-year-old is currently in Flagstaff, Arizona, with his Instagram story documenting the winter weather taking place, complete with snowfall accumulation. Contrast that to temperatures on the Gold Coast currently hovering at the 76-degree Fahrenheit mark.
We’ve reached out to ZSC for details on his timing for the training camp, as well as who perhaps accompanied him from down under. But it’s not the first time the ace has traveled stateside, as he took part in a similar camp in 2019.
It’s possible his camp is overlapping with that of Japanese Olympian Daiya Seto, who made the trek to Phoenix before moving on to Flagstaff in mid-February.
ZSC recently trained alongside Great Britain’s Adam Peaty back in Australia. Peaty was on the Gold Coast as part of a British Swimming contingent taking part in a training camp leading up to the just-concluded Lausanne Swim Cup in Switzerland.
As for ZSC, the Chandler swimmer is looking ahead to the Australian World Trials in June. The meet serves as the sole qualifying opportunity for this summer’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan where Stubblety-Cook will aim to defend the 2breast gold medal he earned in Budapest last year.
Cate Campbell is entered for the Brisbane Metro Champs which is on at the same time as the NSW Open Champs.
Lizzy Dekkers
Zac Stubblety-Cook
***Cate Campbell***
Sam Short
Ella Ramsay
Leah Neale
Hannah Casey
Jaclyn Barclay
https://swimmingbrisbane.org.au/event/2023-vorgee-brisbane-senior-metropolitan-championships/
I wish I was there with him… to learn more about swimming, not anything else obviously!
Pls don’t go skiing.
The Australian Championships in April are NOT a qualifying opportunity for the 2023 WCs. The qualifying opportunity is the Australian trials, a 6 day meet set down for June in Melbourne.
https://www.swimming.org.au/events-results/events-calendar
That’s what I understood too.
The author has now corrected the article.
His whole squad is there on a training camp
Not to mention the large contingent who went to Thailand after the GC camp.
They are home today and were doing some training, so many of them will hopefully be at SOPAC next week.
That seems to be the Boxall St Peter’s squad
I wasn’t quite sure if they were all SPW swimmers, it does make sense.
The thing they all know is that will be their last time to relax until after Paris.
Yep. Looks like Ella Ramsay has moved squads.
Ramsay moved squads like after comm games last year
depending on how ZSC develops in 1 breast and the question marks surrounding the Aussie’s flyer, they could podium in Paris in the 4 medley
Anything could happen. They could legitimately be a gold threat if the pieces all fall in the right place. Cooper is a 53.43 from 2021 and looks primed for a drop this year after his poor LCM season last year followed by an incredible performance at SCW. A 52.80 by Paris is certainly within the realm of possibility.
ZSC swam a 58.67 split in Tokyo. If he concentrates on improving that 100 (or another 100 BS steps up) that could reasonably get down to 58.3?
Temple has a flat start PB of 50.45 and a split PB of 50.26. Could he bring that down to a 49.9? His LCM was a bit lacking last year but he swam the… Read more »
S-Cook has probably already concentrated on improving his 100. We’re probably gonna need to wait for someone else to have a breakthrough (Yong?)
I mean… I obviously don’t see Australian men winning gold in the medley relay as realistic. But it theoretically could happen if every single thing goes right.
Yong’s PB is 59.99. Realistically he’d have to drop that by almost a full second to be better than ZSC’s best split.
Agree. It looked as if they did a lot of work on his 100 last year …. for only incremental improvement and his 200 “headed south” after his WR at AUS Trials. I’d be surprised if he has anything more than a 59mid 100.
Whilst thanking him for his efforts in that area; I’d rather he concentrate on what he IS good at, namely the 200, and look to other options who are more optimised for shorter races.
Williamson looks to me to be a 50 specialist who can’t quite last the 100. Wilson looks to have completely lost his mojo. Yong currently looks the most promising option even if his PB is still slower than ZSC.
With regards… Read more »
Looking at breast performances by Aussies in the last 3 years, ZSC holds the 7 best, all between 59.51 and 59.80. Williamson is the next fastest with a 59.82 from Comm Games last year. Matt Wilson has a 59.95 but that was from 2020 so I don’t see him improving that. Yong has a 59.99 from Comm Games.
In theory Williamson is our next best after ZSC but he’s 25 and unlikely to significantly improve. Agree that Wilson seems to have lost the plot and I don’t see him being competitive at any distance again. Yong is only 4th fastest but at 21, as well as his very good (but still not individually competitive) times at SCW (57.34 flat… Read more »
At this very point in time; I would agree that ZSC IS the current “least worst” option for the M4XMED. His 2021 relay outings were, certainly, presentable. Regrettably, his 2022 outings were not and I really cannot see any appreciable upside for him over this distance for which he is very clearly NOT optimised.
If Yong can drop even a couple of tenths from his PB, it will have him around par with ZSC. The QT (59.49) may well be out of reach for both but FINA A (59.75) is in play. Unless the wheels have completely fallen off with his 200, ZSC is on the plane but IF Yong makes the FINA A then I’d probably take him… Read more »