

Olivia Wunsch made one of her teammates scream harder than she’d ever done before when she anchored Australia to world relay glory in Singapore. Olivia was half a body-length down at the final turn of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2025 World Championships only to draw level with the USA with 15 metres to go before going ahead to get her hand to the wall first.
Victory came a year after Olivia swam the prelims at the Olympics in Paris before being replaced for the final where Australia won their fourth straight title.
While teammate Meg Harris had bellowed her encouragement on poolside, Olivia said: “I just wanted to win the race.” She added: “I wanted to really build it strategically and then power over the top. The rest of that is just a race, and definitely getting up for the relays next season, so (that was) just a lot of fun.”
Olivia is rising rapidly through the ranks of Australian sprinting with her senior success in Paris and Singapore following a highly decorated junior career.
She left the 2023 World Junior Championships in Netanya, Israel, with five golds among six medals, including the 50/100m freestyle double. Olivia led an Australian 1-2 ahead of Milla Jansen in the longer race in Netanya with both women now standing together on top of the podium in Singapore.
“We’ve all challenged each other through the age group ranks, so it’s really special for us to be able to stand together and share this moment,” said Olivia.
“It’s really exciting that this is the start of the next block and this is our starting point.”