Olympic champ McKeown breaks 14-year Aussie record
Gold Coast: Superstar Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown has broken the national women’s 200m individual medley record with a time that would have won gold at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics and last year’s world championships.
The three-time Olympic gold medallist then told media poolside that she wasn’t interested in whether World Aquatics would introduce prizemoney for Olympic champions, which was a move made by World Athletics last week.
McKeown clocked 2:06.99 to win the national title at the Australian swimming championships and break Olympic champion Stephanie Rice’s 14-year record, set in July 2009 at the world titles in Rome.
“It’s hard to say,” McKeown said when asked if she was surprised about breaking the Australian record.
“Sometimes you can put together really good sessions and other times you’re barely scraping the barrel.
“To be able to do that here I was really happy. He [coach Michael Bohl] did put the challenge to me that if I went under 2:07 I didn’t have to do the 400m IM, so maybe that was a draw … I’m not sure if I’m doing that tomorrow [Thursday].”
McKeown contested the 200m individual medley at last year’s world championships in Fukuoka, but was disqualified because of a stroke violation while transitioning from backstroke to breaststroke during her semi-final.
McKeown’s time of 2:06.99 on Wednesday night eclipsed Rice’s 2:07.03 national record.
