Over the past six days of swimming at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, 52 Commonwealth Games gold medals have been on offer. As the meet concluded on Wednesday, Australia won the last race of the evening – the women’s 4x100m medley relay – to collect the nation’s 25th gold. The Dolphins won as many gold medals in Birmingham as England, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Northern Ireland combined – just one gold shy of claiming fully half of the available titles.
The superlative statistics don’t end there. Australian won seven of the eight relays, falling only to England in the men’s medley relay. Swim queen Emma McKeon won six gold medals – she alone sits fourth on the medal tally, ahead of the entire New Zealand team. Australian swimmers swept the podium in four events: the men’s 400m freestyle and the women’s 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle. And such was the strength and breadth of the Dolphins that there were only seven podiums across the entire meet that did not feature at least one Australian.
