The Australian Short Course (25m) Nationals kick off Thursday at the South Australia Aquatic Centre in Marion, Adelaide.

While it's not a selection meet for the Aussies, plenty of big names will get in the pool to race and kick-start their preparations for the Commonwealth Games next April.

Olympic champion and Adelaide local Kyle Chalmers will make a return to competition after withdrawing from the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, to address a heart issue. Chalmers will contest the 50-100-200m freestyle events and 50-100m butterfly races, where he will find stiff competition against national team members Daniel Smith and David McKeon and national-record holder David Morgan.

Cate Campbell will also resume national team duties after also sitting on the sidelines in Budapest. Campbell, the former world-record holder in the short course and long course 100m freestyles, has watched Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström break both of her records in the last three months. Watch for her to throw down some swift times and try and get back to the top of women’s sprinting.

Also looking at big schedules on the women’s side, is 200m backstroke world champ Emily Seebohm, who will mirror her World Cup schedule of the 50-100-200m backstrokes and 100-200m IMs over the space of three days. She will have youngsters Kaylee McKeown, Minna Atherton, and Sian Whittaker pushing her all the way.

Six-time world championship medalist Emma McKeon will swing her attention to the treble of fly events on deck, and also the 100m freestyle, in a cracking showdown with former WR holder Cate Campbell, 2015 world champ Bronte Campbell, 2016 SC world champ Brittany Elmslie, and young gun Shayna Jack. That looks to be the race of the meet.

Other notables include the return to competition for Bobby Hurley — former WR holder in the SCM 50 backstroke. Hurley, who has been documenting his comeback trail on FloSwimming, looks to swim his first race since December 2016. In between then and now, Hurley spent time with Energy Standard Team coaching the likes of Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh to success at Worlds this summer in Budapest.

Two-time Olympic medalist and 2015 world champion in the 100/200m backstroke Mitch Larkin will not be competing in Adelaide after another coaching change.

Some big-name foreigners have also made their way Down Under to start their respective seasons. Former 100m breast WR holder and 2012 Olympic champ Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania and two-time world champion Daiya Seto of Japan have both spent time recently training under the sun in Queensland with esteemed coaches Michael Bohl of Griffith University and Chris Mooney of Sunshine Coast University. Meilutyte will contest the breaststroke events against Rio finalist Taylor McKeown, and Seto will swim a full program of the 100-200m IMs, 200m fly, 200m back, and 200m breast, where he is seeded first in all five events. 

Stay tuned to Flo Swimming for all week for updates, results, and behind-the-scenes interviews.