Article by Jackson Barrett & Glenn Valencich, courtesy of The Nightly.
Australia’s greatest-ever backstroke swimmer is on the brink of joining Ian Thorpe with five gold medals tonight after winning the 200m semifinal in imposing fashion.
Kaylee McKeown’s bid to become the first woman to win consecutive 100m-200m backstroke titles at the Olympics will come right after Cam McEvoy vies for his first gold medal in the 50m freestyle final.
McKeown was almost a body length ahead of her rivals before the 100-metre mark in her dominant semifinal swim, where she backed away from Olympic record pace to conserve herself for Saturday’s final.
The Queenslander, who has already won gold in the 100m backstroke at these Games, cruised to victory in the semi with a time of 2.07:57 and is now the raging hot favourite to claim her fifth gold.
It would put her alongside Thorpe and just one behind Emma McKeon among Australia’s most decorated Olympians.
The win would also give her four individual gold medals, making her the first Australian athlete to achieve the feat — something Dawn Fraser, Thorpe, Shane Gould and Murray Rose never did.
Fellow Paris golden girls Ariarne Titmus and Jess Fox both have three individual gold medals.
McKeown won both the 100 and 200m backstroke titles three years ago in Tokyo.
Phoebe Bacon beat countrywoman Regan Smith in the other semifinal, but Smith is expected to lift in Saturday’s final, with that swim coming just 40 minutes after she claimed silver in the women’s 200m butterfly final.
McKeown’s semifinal win did not come without controversy after Great Britain’s Honey Osrin avoided being disqualified for failing to surface within 15m of the start. This came after compatriot Luke Greenbank was disqualified from the men’s event for doing just that.
Live footage from a low angle looked to show the 21-year-old’s red cap appear above the water just after 15m before she turned in third position, and overhead vision suggested the issue was beyond doubt.
Osrin briefly hit the front during the third lap and set a new personal best as she finished second behind McKeown.
But unlike Greenbank, Osrin did not face a review and qualified third fastest for the final.
World Aquatics regulations specify swimmers are permitted to be submerged “for a distance of not more than 15 metres after the start” but “by that point the head must have broken the surface”.
McKeown will also swim in the heats of the medley relay on tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, McEvoy sent a shot across the bow of his rivals finishing in a dead-heat for first in his semifinal.
He tied with Great Britain’s Ben Proud for a spot in the final, with a late surge in the last 25 metres. French hometown hero Florent Manaudou only just made the cut , while United States veteran Caeleb Dressel finished second in the other semifinal.
The power event is the only one four-time Olympian McEvoy contested at Australian trials and he has been here before: a gold-medal favourite at the Olympics.
McEvoy says he’s a far different person than when his Rio Olympics turned sour eight years ago.
Then, McEvoy was favourite to win the men’s 100m freestyle but finished seventh.
“Where I am now as a person and an athlete, very different (to Rio),” the 30-year-old said.
“The biggest thing is just understanding that the whole context is different, both in terms of in the Olympics and during the comp and also the whole preparation leading up to it. So just reminding myself of the difference in context and how that flows in to just being able to execute what I can.
“All my training is around repeatability and repeatability at the speeds I need to be at, so just really having trust in that and remembering where I am.
“Two years ago, I wouldn’t have said I’d be here, let alone in the position I’m in now. So being grateful for that.”
“Two years ago, I wouldn’t have said I’d be here, let alone in the position I’m in now.”
Cam McEvoy
