Jame Magnussen

James Magnussen was relatively unknown on the international swimming scene until he suddenly appeared at the 2011 World Champs in Shanghai and won gold medals in 100 free individual even as well as the relay.

He started off by swimming an insanely fast first leg of the mens’ 4x100m freestyle relay, which Australia eventually won. He went out blisteringly fast and made everyone, including Phelps, look fairly silly. Everyone except for South Africa’s Graeme Moore who went out with Magnussen and touched in second.

Magnussen, at the mere age of 20, qualified first for the finals in a time of 47.90 and then continued his winning form and finished in a time of 47.63 to take the gold medal. Brent Hayden (CAN) followed in second with a time of 47.95 and William Meynard (FRA) was third, coming in on 48.00 and was just able to nudge Cesar Cielo Filho (BRA) out of medal contention by 0.01 seconds.

Despite Australia’s long history of dominant swimmers, this was the first time an Australian had been crowned as the 100m freestyle World Champ.

This is definitely one to look out for at London 2012.