Swimming stars tipped for big 2027 despite illness, injury hiccups

Kaylee McKeown returned to competition at the Swim GP after an illness-ravaged 2026.

Mollie O'Callaghan missed the event due to an infection.

Australia's Dolphins are tipped to star at the 2027 World Championships in Budapest.

Battered by illness and injury, a trio of Australian Olympic swimming stars are being backed to be ready for Los Angeles Games.

Between them, Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O'Callaghan and Kyle Chalmers have won 11 Olympic gold medals.

McKeown returned to competition over the weekend at the inaugural Swim GP in Melbourne, having not raced since last year because of glandular fever.

Chalmers was poolside at the event, in the midst of a six-week break from swimming as he manages long-term back problems.

O'Callaghan, who nursed back and shoulder injuries through the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, was a late withdrawal from the Swim GP because of a skin infection.

McKeown said the one positive of her illness was that it had happened this year, not next.

Australian swimming head coach Rohan Taylor echoed that sentiment about the three stars in the context of the four-year Olympic cycle.

"No-one will remember what happens in 2026 [in terms of injury or illness]. You can't worry about that now," Taylor told AAP.

"You have to get them right, you have to remember their talent won't go anywhere.

"It's about getting them healthy and then letting the fitness build. We know they can race and we just have to get ourselves to the arena fit and healthy, then we will be right."

McKeown made a successful return to racing at the Swim GP and Taylor was pleased with the backstroke queen's progress after the illness knocked her flat.

"I live on the Sunshine Coast, so I get to see it up close and see the progression," Taylor said.

"It's really good to see her back racing. She's such a competitor.

"She just looked back to her normal self, competitive, focused when the race was on, but enjoying herself.

McKeown gave a glimpse of her blistering backstroke speed on Saturday night, storming home after the staggered start to beat Ella Ramsay's breaststroke in the 50m skins champions race.

It was her first racing since the world championships in July last year.

"I've been doing some pretty solid sessions, but it's hard to come into these races — not racing all year — and then my body just hasn't recovered as quickly as it would," McKeown said.

"It's good, nice practice and gives a bit of confidence that I'm still swimming well.

"It's great there are no times, which takes the pressure off. It's just about racing."

As McKeown notes, glandular fever affects people differently and in her case, "it just really knocked me flat".

So competing for the Tsunami team at the Swim GP, with nothing riding on the results, was an ideal stepping stone as McKeown looks to next year's world championships and then the 2028 Olympics.

"It's really good fun and I'm glad we can race in this format," she said.

"It's taken a long time to build back and then I have to build to where I was, which is even more of a gap.

"I'm lucky it was this year and not next year, when it counts, so it's a blessing in disguise. I've had some nice time at home."

Swim GP is a points-based competition in a 25m pool, with no official times recorded and a variety of relay and individual race formats.

The Wahoo team, lead by Meg Harris and Sam Short, dominated the two-night Swim GP and comfortably won on 222 points.

McKeown's Tsunami were next on 173, ahead of Kraken (170) and KingTide (149).