Article by Jackson Barrett, courtesy of The Nightly.
Spirit of late dad inspires McKeown after late surge snares another gold.
Backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown has paid tribute to her late father after defending her gold medal in an epic 100m final at the Paris Olympics.
McKeown stormed home to become the second Australian swimmer these Games to defend a title, after Ariarne Titmus’ 400m freestyle triumph on night one.
McKeown turned in fourth and had to fight her way past American stars Regan Smith and Katharine Berkoff in a stirring finish.
The Tokyo champion recorded an Olympic record and a personal best of 57.33sec to claim her fourth gold medal.
Her father, Sholto, passed away in 2020 after a two-year battle with brain cancer.
Asked what she thought her father would be saying to her after another gold medal, McKeown said: “He’d be extremely proud.
“It’s great to have my family here, because I know he is here in spirit.”
The 23-year-old Queenslander has a tattoo on her foot that reads “I’ll always be with you”.
McKeown also paid tribute to her mother and sister, who were at the La Defense Arena. “They deal with a lot of s…, so thank you for all of that,” she said.
The Queenslander also said she was prepared for a battle in the final 25m. McKeown looked perilously far behind after the turn. Berkoff and Canadian Kylie Masse hit the wall the first time dead even, with McKeown slipping behind late in the first 50m.
“I knew it would come down to that last 25m,” she said.
“It’s something that I’ve been practising for and it’s something that the Americans and myself are really good at, finishing our races strong. So it was going to be whoever had it in that last five, 10 metres.”
WA teenager Iona Anderson started impressively and finished fifth.
It was Australia’s fourth gold medal in the pool at these games and fifth overall.
Australia’s men’s 4x200m freestyle then claimed the country’s first bronze medal of the Games in the final race of the card, with a monster swim by Flynn Southam reeling in defending champions Great Britain as well as the United States.
But the line-up of Max Giuliani, Southam, Elijah Winnington and Tommy Neill settled for a well-earned bronze. Team GB became the first swimming relay team ever to defend their title with exactly the same line-up.
Shayna Jack’s redemption story will be put to the test when she swims in the women’s 100m freestyle final on Thursday morning, three years after a positive drug ban she is still disputing ruled her out Tokyo.
Jack finished second in her semifinal, behind Hong Kong’s Haughey Siobhan Bernadette, while Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan could score a third gold medal at these Games — and the fifth of her career — after qualifying third-fastest and edging Swedish veteran Sarah Sjoestroem in their semi.
O’Callaghan looked more comfortable behind the blocks and produced a mature swim, a night after her showdown with Ariarne Titmus in the 200m freestyle final.
Jack admitted she had become emotional ahead of her maiden individual event. She was part of the Australian team that claimed gold in the 4x100m relay and could take home her second medal on Thursday morning (4.30am AEST).
“I’m really proud of that swim, it was gutsy and I’m happy to have my hands on the wall and come second in that,” she said.
“This is my first individual Olympic event, I have actually gotten quite emotional thinking how far I have come,” she said.
Winnington made a blistering start to the 800m freestyle final, swimming under world-record pace through the first 100m, but was swallowed up by the field with 450m to race.
Kyle Chalmers is right in the mix for a second gold medal — eight years after his first — in the blue ribbon 100m freestyle.
Chalmers turned in fourth and launched a perfectly-timed second 50m to win his semifinal. The 47.58sec swim — the exact time he posted to win gold in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics — was half-a-second faster than his heat time.
Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle finished first in the second semi in 47.21 to qualify first ahead of the South Australian for Thursday’s final (6.39am AEST).
“It’s going to be a big challenge, obviously there are three guys that now have a faster PB than I do, so it is going to take a lot to be there tomorrow night,” Chalmers said.
Zac Stubblety-Cook produced a barnstorming finish for the second time in just hours in his 200m breaststroke semifinal to touch the wall first and qualify second fastest for Thursday’s final (6.31am), while West Australian Josh Yong qualified eighth fastest.
