Kaylee Rochelle McKeownOAM (/məˈkjuːən/mə-KEW-ən; born 12 July 2001) is an Australian swimmer and quintuple Olympic gold medalist. She is the reigning Olympic champion in the 100 and 200 metres backstroke. She is the world record holder in the long course50 metre backstroke and the long course 200 metre backstroke, and formerly in the 100 metre backstroke (long course and short course) and 200 metre backstroke (short course).[4][5] She won gold in both the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics. In 2023, she was named as the "Best Female Swimmer of the Year" by World Aquatics, after sweeping gold in all three events of backstroke (50m, 100m, and 200m) at all three World Cup legs, held in Berlin, Athens and Budapest in October, 2023.[6]
The following year, McKeown competed in the women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, placing fourth in a World Junior Record time of 2:06.76.[9][10] McKeown earned her first senior international medal for swimming the heats of the mixed medley relay, in which Australia placed second in the final.[11]
McKeown earned her first senior individual medal at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships with a silver medal in the 200 metre backstroke event.
In 2020, McKeown broke her first World Record in the short course 200 metre backstroke event, swimming a time of 1:58.94 at the Australian Championships.[15]
2020 Summer Olympic Games
Leading up to the 2020 Summer Olympics, McKeown was the fastest swimmer in the 200 metre individual medley but withdrew from the event to concentrate on the backstroke.[16] McKeown broke the world record in the 100 metre backstroke event at the 2021 Australian Swimming Trials swimming a time of 57.45.[17]
McKeown won the 100 metre backstroke at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics setting a new Olympic record of 57.47 seconds and becoming the first Australian woman to win a backstroke event at an Olympic Games.[18] She also won the 200 metre backstroke event in a time of 2:04.68, and swam the backstroke leg on the gold medal winning women's medley relay.[19]
Following the 2020 Games, McKeown's longtime Chris Mooney left USC Spartans on the Sunshine Coast and moved to become head coach at Bond University on the Gold Coast. McKeown then transferred to Griffith University Swimming Club on the Gold Coast to train under Michael Bohl, who was best known for coaching Olympic Champions Emma McKeon and Stephanie Rice.
2022 World Short Course Championships
Following her performances at the 2022 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships, held in Sydney in August, McKeown was named to the roster for the 2022 World Short Course Championships.[1] On the first day of competition, she ranked twelfth in the preliminaries of the 100 metre backstroke, qualifying for the semifinals with her time of 57.11 seconds.[20] Later in the morning, she qualified for the final of the 200 metre individual medley with an overall rank of fourth in the preliminaries with a time of 2:06.07.[21] In the evening session, she started off with a bronze medal-win in the 200 metre individual medley in an Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian record time of 2:03.57 before qualifying for the final of the 100 metre backstroke approximately 20 minutes later with a time of 56.35 seconds that ranked her sixth across both semifinal heats.[22][23][24]
On day two, McKeown won the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke with a personal best time of 55.49 seconds.[25][26] The morning of day three, she ranked tenth in the preliminaries of the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 26.24 seconds and advanced to the semifinals.[27] In the evening semifinals, she placed ninth with a time of 26.09 seconds.[28] Two days later, she swam the backstroke portion of the 4×50 metre medley relay in the preliminaries in a time of 26.42 seconds, helping qualify the relay to the final ranking first in an Oceanian and Australian record time of 1:44.78.[29] When the finals relay placed first in a time of 1:42.35, she won a gold medal for her efforts in the preliminaries.[30]
Day six of six, McKeown started in the morning in the preliminaries of the 200 metre backstroke, where she ranked second in 2:02.32 and advanced to the final.[31] In the final, she was the only one to finish in a time faster than 2:00.00, winning the gold medal with a 1:59.26 that was 0.32 seconds slower than her world record mark from 2020.[32] She concluded the session with a silver medal in the 4×100 metre medley relay, leading-off with a 55.74 for the backstroke portion to help finish in an Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian record time of 3:44.92.[33]
2023 World Aquatics Championships
At the beginning of the 2023 season, McKeown broke the long course 200 metre backstroke world record at the 2023 NSW State Open Championships.[34] With this record, McKeown became the second swimmer to hold the Olympic title, Commonwealth title, Long Course World Championship title, Short Course World Championship title, Long Course world record and Short Course world record in the same event concurrently, following compatriot Grant Hackett in the 1500 metre freestyle.[35]
At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships McKeown swept the 50, 100 and 200 metre backstroke events, breaking the Oceanian record in the 50 metre backstroke and the championship record in the 100 metre backstroke.[36][37][38] McKeown became only the second swimmer to ever win the 50, 100 and 200 metre events of the same stroke during the same championships, after China's Qin Haiyang completed the breaststroke sweep the day prior.[39][40]
2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup
McKeown was the overall winner of the 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup after sweeping the backstroke events at all three stops.[41] At the final stop in Budapest, McKeown broke both the 50 metre and 100 metre backstroke world records (breaking her own world record in the latter) and became the first woman to break the long course 50, 100 and 200 metre backstroke world records during their career, and the first woman to hold all three concurrently.[42]
McKeown won gold in the 100m backstroke in a time of 57.33,[43] setting a new Olympic record, matching her Oceanian record and becoming the second woman to repeat gold in this event after American Natalie Coughlin. Days later, Mckeown won gold in the 200m backstroke, charging home to out split her nearest rival, American Regan Smith by over seven tenths of a second, setting a new Olympic record of 2.03.73[44], beating the previous record set by American Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Olympics. Mckeown won the 100m and 200m backstroke events at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first woman in history to win both titles in two consecutive Olympic games and only the second person to ever achieve this, after East Germany's Roland Matthes. McKeown also won silver in the 4 × 100 metre medley relay and bronze in the 200 metre individual medley (after the original third placer Alexandra Walsh disqualified due to improper transition from backstroke to breaststroke) and mixed 4 × 100 metre medley relay.
Legend: WR – World record;OC – Oceanian record;NR – Australian record; Records not set in finals: h – heat;sf – semifinal;r – relay 1st leg;rh – relay heat 1st leg;b – B final;† – en route to final mark;tt – time trial
In August 2020, McKeown's father, Sholto, died after a two-year battle with brain cancer.[59] She has a tattoo on her foot in his memory that says, "I'll always be with you".[60]
McKeown has been dating fellow Australian national team member and 2020 OlympianBrendon Smith since November 2021.Brendon and Kaylee broke up their relationship in August 2024, after the Olympic Games
[2]
^"Australia Day Honours List"(PDF). The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. 26 January 2022. Archived(PDF) from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
^Commission, Australian Sports Commission; jurisdiction=Commonwealth of Australia; corporateName=Australian Sports. "Swimming makes a big splash at AIS Performance Awards". Australian Sports Commission. Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
