Swimming

The Australian Swim Team heads to London 2012 with a mix of proven champions and the next generation of superstars. Half the Team will make their Olympic debut in London and Leisel Jones becomes the first Australian swimmer to compete in four Olympics.

Men to watch:

Macquarie's James Magnussen. 'The Missile' has many shots at gold. He enters the 4x100m freestyle relay and 100m freestyle as the reigning World Champion and eyes the 100m world record (46.91s). The 21-year-old will also contest the 50m freestyle and most likely the 4x100m medley relay.  Always close by Magnussen's side is James Roberts. Defending 4x100m freestyle World Champions Matt Targett and Olympic silver medallist Eamon Sullivan join the boys for an explosive relay.

Women to watch:

The Aussies rose out of the water as a female superpower in Athens and Beijing and are keen to stay on top. Proven champions Leisel Jones, Stephanie Rice, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Trickett join 16-year-old Yolane Kukla and the first siblings to represent Australia since 1972, Bronte and Cate Campbell in an exciting Australian line-up.

The rules

There are four different strokes in swimming as well as the individual medley and relay events.  Men and women contest the same Olympic distances with the exception of the 800m freestyle (women only) and 1500m freestyle (men only). Australia will be represented in every event.

Each race has a maximum of eight swimmers. Preliminary heats in the 50m, 100m and 200m events lead into semi finals and finals based on the fastest times. In relays and individual events of 400m or more, the eight fastest finishers in the preliminaries advance directly to the finals.