Might be wrong but this women's 100m freestyle might be the only one we've missed out on that we were really expected to win. It's kind of balanced out with the unexpected one in Mack Horton

Fair enough

Agreed, don't listen to C7 or the hype machine over at Faux News about our medal chances. The Girls 4 x 100m, C.Campbell & McEvoy were the only shoe-ins for gold in the pool.

Chalmers takes care of McEvoy missing out and Horton takes care of the Campbell sisters. Horton still has a chance to take out the 1500m, but unlikely. 

What about Seebohm and Larkin? We won 7 gold and 18 medals total at the world championships 1 year ago, this Olympics we have only won 3 gold and 8 medals total so far with only one day to go. Also many individual swimmers times are slower than 12 months ago, you would think at the Olympics your times would improve. Australians just dont deal with the pressure of Olympics very well, it doenst surprise me our two individual gold came from guys who were massive underdogs, and the favourites, Seebohm, Mcevoy, Larkin, Campbell flopped big time.

aren't we expected to win mens and womens hockey?
I think two olympics in a row we have probably performed slightly weaker than expected

The biggest problem is that some of our swimmers have qualified fastest for finals when in reality they were giving everything in the semis while the eventual winners were saving something for the final. Campbell sisters still a chance in the 50 and we should jag a couple more swimming medals on top of that. The team has carried itself brilliantly imo. Absolutely loved Larkin's reaction after winning silver. 

Larkin hardly flopped big time.

Channel 7 have way too much hype and over confidence about Australia's medal chances. 

Definitely not expected to win the womens, should go close in the mens though. Both teams still well and truly alive though.

Yeah Larkin has done fine. 12 months is an eternity in swimming. Also the only 50m at the olympics is the freestyle compared to every stroke at the worlds which makes a huge difference.

I think mental strength in this generation of sports stars is a problem across the board -cricket rugby, football and swimming. In swimming years past just about every swimmer seemed to do pbs at the olympics in heats and the finals. The same seemed to be true even in sports we did poorly in like athletics

I can't look at the last 10 years of aussie sportsmen and say they are marked by a never say die attitude. The previous ten years I think our mental strength was the best in the world

I wonder how you develop mental strength

Larkin won both the 100m and 200m at the world championships and swam better times than he did at the Olympics. Same for Mcevoy, Seebohm, Campbell, etc. Some of these guys swam better heat and semi times than they did in the final.

He's just not swimming as well now as he was last year, doesn't mean he's choked. A silver and fourth are still great results. Traditionally at the olympics the semi final times are usually faster than finals in most swimming events. 

Hard to blame mental strength when very few of the Australians were expected to win in the pool anyway. You have to disregard the bias in Australian media and actually look at the context. 

For every Cate Campbell & Cameron McEvoy "choke", there is a Kyle Chalmers & Mack Horton unexpected win. 

I don't think there is a mentality issue at all, it is the nature of the Olympics. There are unexpected winners & young upstarts that beat the favorites all the time. 

Agree and it plays into the media backlash when our Olympians "fail". It is a fallacy as they were never really a shoe-in for Gold anyway. 

you can't ask for every gold but we seemed to get a lot more pbs in olympic finals in the 90s and early naughts then the last 2-3 olympics. If you do a pb and get beaten by an youngster fair enough
if you are well below a pb thats a problem possibly a mentality issue

personally I get almost as excited by a pb in a final that finished 6 as I do a medal

do you have access to foreign media?
Who were listed as favourites for the events that the oz media listed us as favourites for?

Maybe...it could also be a strategic issue [coaching] or a conditioning issue [trainer]....who knows? However the problem is clearly an individual one and not widespread or systematic among the Australian Olympic team.

I have noticed that many of the swimmers have gone out really hard in the first half of the race & then faded....this could be due to a myriad of factors. 

Also regarding the 90's/00's, the talent in the pool today across the nations represented is far more superior than what was around in those days. 

Send them to North Korea? 

Forget the 100m for Larkin, it's not his event and the World Championship win in that was a surprise and a bonus but he was most definitely not expected to win it in Rio. The 200m he was expected to be a strong chance but not some raging hot unbeatable favourite.

We should be sending our athletes to America more. Perhaps some American coaching.

The Americans are a very proud people. They compete for their country and flag. Look how emotional the Americans get wherever they compete. 

Our athletes compete for themsleves. 

Thank fuck for that swimming is shit.

you know the opals performace this morning where we never gave up and had a never say die attitude? It definitely feels like those performances used to be more common

I can think of a few other aussie performances that have given me g&g malaria - wsw acl win, socceroos at 2014 and 2015 world cups and asian cup (as I said I'm not asking for just wins, I'm looking for pbs) but it definitely feels like its becoming a LOT rarer

I wouldn't say NK were known for their mental strength in sports

I'd say USA are the only other country that I associate with mental strength in sport (to add to their formidable talents)

Its normal to want to downplay expectatations especially following disappointing results.
Every Olympics is going to be tough but you would expect 7 gold and 18 medals at the world championships to translate roughly into a smiliar outcome at the olympics. I know for sure Swimming Australia wouldnt settle for three gold, they would be very disappointed with the outcomes, partlcularly Larkin, Seebohm and Campbell who were world champions and swam below expectations and slower than they did 12 months ago. While the American swimmers won most of the events they expected to and picked up a few suprises as well.

Its not about demonising our athletes its just about pointing out that they may not be as mentally gritty and well prepared as the Americans. Australian athletes just dont seem to handle pressure all that well, we prefer the underdog status and coming from behind.

usa atheletes have massive egos and often come across as shallow. Also I would say "competing for themselves" would best characterise cahill and neil (judged from a distance which is obviously very unreliable) yet they had formidable mental strength. What makes you say USA are more selfless atheletes?

for a bit of green and gold malaria how about that opals performance against japan watching the replay (again) during my lunch break

Most of these athletes that have "menatilty issues" are doing times that would win the Gold in past years.  Horton won with a time that was about a second quicker than what won in 2000 and there are far more athlete's capable of getting that fast now. You hardly ever see someone capable of streaking ahead like Thorpe could even with a "bad" preparation. The list of things that would have to go right to win would be a lot bigger now compared to the past. The attention and pressure on them is also steadily increasing.

I would!

they would have to be the toughest little buggers at the Olympics I reckon. 

again that missed the perceived lack of pbs
If you swim a pb and lose fine