🇦 Lani Pallister: Excited to Race and Have Fun at the Short-Course Championships in Budapest! 🔥🏊♀

Another gold medal to Lani Pellistrip Australia. I love racing Budapest. I've raced there three times now. I did World Juniors, World Champs and then World Cups. So the only thing I haven't done is World Short Course in Budapest. But it's such an incredible pool and Hungary always puts on such an incredible atmosphere and event. So I'm more excited just to race for the sake of racing and not race with pressure on me. I know people probably think that that's the wrong sort of way to talk about it considering the four gold medals from last World Championships. But I also just want to go over and put together a race that I'm proud of. And if that's a PB, cool. And if it's not, then that's also fine. Memories from Melbourne because that was an amazing event. It was so wild. It's still weird to think about. Stunning successes though. I think Melbourne really started my confidence going into the Olympics. Two years out is still a long time, but I think it was really good. Just with my confidence coming off the year that it was in 2021 and then racing World Champs, COM Games and then doing that at the end of the year was really special. So for a lot of people, when it's one of their first major meets, it ends up being a really good stepping stone. Having this time now to kind of race without having something to look forward to or using it as a stepping stone will be really fun. And also just being able to share that experience with other people that are coming home from the Olympics. Some people have raced World Cups and broke world records and other things. And then some of us have had breaks and whatnot off the back of it. So I think it'll be a mixed bag. But I also think that short course is just such a different sport to long course racing. I'm not usually a sprinter, but when there's that many more walls, it makes everything a lot closer. So it'll be exciting doing kind of racing that's a lot more jam-packed and close together. The meet isn't as long either. So a lot of us will end up doubling up on events. I know I have quite a few sessions that have double ups, so that'll be interesting to see. But short course is always just fun. I think it's a lot less serious than long course meets are. And I think the atmosphere ends up being a lot more friendly and less serious than a long course world champs is. Especially off the back of an Olympics, I think everyone will just be going to have fun.