By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -After a strong showing at the world championships in Singapore, Australia's head coach is confident a golden generation of swimmers can deliver another big performance at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
While the United States edged Australia to top the Singapore standings with nine golds and 29 medals overall, Australia were cheered by the team's tally of eight golds among 20 medals.
"From a performance point of view, when you look at the medal table, it was a great
outcome for us," head coach Rohan Taylor told Reuters.
Led by a crop of generational talents in their women's programmes, Australia has rivalled the United States' supremacy at the last two Olympics, scooping seven golds from the Paris Games pool after a team record haul of nine at Tokyo.
The United States topped both Games meets, with nine golds at Paris and 11 at Tokyo.
European nations are making inroads, particularly in men's events, but Australia's Olympic champions showed they have lost none of their hunger since Paris.
Backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown swept the 100m and 200m golds in Singapore in a repeat of the 2023 Fukuoka world championships, while Mollie O'Callaghan grabbed a second women's 200m freestyle title and was instrumental in Australia's two freestyle relay golds.
The evergreen Cameron McEvoy stormed to the men's 50m freestyle gold, becoming Australia's oldest world champion swimmer at 31.
Australia invests heavily in swimming which has contributed about a third of its total Olympic medals and produced an honour roll of champions such as Ian Thorpe, Dawn Fraser and Emma McKeon.
Taylor and his staff are tasked with keeping the good times rolling through to 2032 when Australia host the Olympics in Brisbane.
Australia were missing big names in Singapore, including the resting four-times Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus and injured breaststroker Zac Stubblety-Cook, a former world champion.
However, there were statement performances from lesser lights.
The partially deaf Meg Harris claimed her first individual title in the women's 50 freestyle, having shared all her previous gold medals at global events with relay teammates.
Teen talents Milla Jansen and Olivia Wunsch helped Australia win the women's 4x100m freestyle relay in the absence of Shayna Jack and the retired Emma McKeon.
Lani Pallister gave American great Katie Ledecky a scare in the 800m freestyle, while beating Canada's irrepressible Summer McIntosh for the silver medal.
Pallister's time of 8:05.98 shaved five seconds off her personal best and was the sixth fastest on record, marking her as a big threat to Ledecky's bid for a record-extending fifth Olympic gold in the event at LA.
"Ledecky is the greatest distance female ... we've ever seen," said Taylor.
"But at some point there'll be an athlete taking over and I'm sure Lani is motivated to do that."
For all the podium celebrations, Australia have work to do to ensure they can challenge U.S. supremacy at LA.
The U.S. team's results in Singapore were probably affected by an outbreak of gastroenteritis at their pre-meet camp in Thailand.
Australia made little impression in the men's backstroke and breaststroke and consequently had modest results in the medley relay events.
The women were well-beaten for the 4x100m medley relay gold by the world record-setting U.S. team, which cost silver medallists Australia their top spot on the medal table.
Taylor said Australia needed to develop more depth in men's backstroke and breaststroke across the board to strengthen their relay teams.
"If we keep building on that, we will always be around the mark."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
