See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards right here.
It was all to play for in 2024 for Kaylee McKeown. Regardless of asserting herself as the very best feminine backstroker on this planet in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the slate was cleaned for the Olympic 12 months.
Together with her American counterpart Regan Smith reaching new heights beneath her new coaching program, McKeown had her work minimize out for her this 12 months, and she or he delivered in spades.
All the things in 2024 was about performing on the Olympics for McKeown, however that didn’t cease her from swimming quick all 12 months.
Opting to not defend her backstroke world titles on the 2024 World Championships in Doha, McKeown started her 12 months by clocking 58.19 within the 100 again on the Victorian Open Lengthy Course Championships in late February, and she or he solely picked it up from there.
The now 23-year-old was explosive on the NSW State Open Championships in March, placing up instances of 27.25 within the 50 again, 57.57 within the 100 again and a pair of:04.21 within the 200 again, plus posting 2:08.84 within the 200 IM. On high of that, she set a private better of 1:56.06 within the 200 free.
McKeown continued to construct via the spring, setting a pair of Australian Information within the 200 IM (2:06.99) and 400 IM (4:28.22) on the Australian Open Championships in April, including a season-best time of 2:03.84 within the 200 again, the sixth-fastest swim in historical past on the time, and a brand new All Comers Document within the 50 again (27.07).
She left that meet ranked #1 on this planet in 5 occasions, rolling her into the Australian Olympic Trials the place it was one other dominant efficiency for the Griffith College product.
McKeown clocked 57.41 within the 100 again, the second-fastest swim ever on the time, 2:03.30 within the 200 again, which stays the second-fastest swim ever, and a pair of:06.63 within the 200 IM, which was the fourth-fastest ever on the time (now #5) and broke the Commonwealth and Australian Information.
All of that led to the Olympic Video games, the place McKeown would faceoff with Smith, who broke McKeown’s 100 again world document on the U.S. Olympic Trials.
After sweeping the ladies’s backstroke occasions on the Tokyo Video games, McKeown accomplished the double-double, defending her Olympic titles in each races.
Within the 100 again, McKeown matched her private finest time (and former world document, second-fastest swim ever) within the last, clocking 57.33 for a brand new Olympic Document to high Smith (57.66).
Three days later within the 200 again, McKeown produced one other Olympic Document, coming from behind to clock 2:03.73 for the sixth-fastest swim in historical past and a brand new Olympic Document, defending her gold medal.
The next day, in arguably essentially the most anticipated race of all the swimming competitors in Paris, McKeown added a 3rd particular person medal within the 200 IM, incomes bronze behind Summer season McIntosh (2:06.56) and Kate Douglass (2:06.92) in a time of two:08.08. American Alex Walsh initially touched in third however was disqualified.
Along with her particular person swims, McKeown additionally led off the Australian blended 4×100 medley relay (57.90) that received bronze, and the ladies’s 4×100 medley relay (57.72) that earned silver, bringing her medal tally to 5 in Paris.
That tied McKeown with 4 different athletes, all swimmers, for the second-most medals received in Paris, with China’s Zhang Yufei main with six.
Amongst Australians, Mollie O’Callaghan additionally received 5 medals in Paris, and had yet another gold than McKeown, however notably had only one particular person medal.
McKeown’s 2024 Performances That Rank Prime 10 All-Time
- Ladies’s 50 Again
- Ladies’s 100 Again
- 57.33 – #3 (tie)
- 57.41 – #5
- Ladies’s 200 Again
- 2:03.30 – #2
- 2:03.73 – #6
- 2:03.84 – #8
- Ladies’s 200 IM
- Ladies’s 400 IM
Along with her elite swims within the again and IM occasions, McKeown additionally ranked tied for 14th on this planet in 2024 within the 200 free, twenty seventh within the 400 free, tied for fortieth within the 100 breast and tied for 63rd within the 100 free.
McKeown’s Prime 100 World Rankings, 2023
- 50 again – #1 (27.07)
- 200 again – #1 (2:03.30)
- 100 again – #2 (57.33)
- 200 IM – #2 (2:06.63)
- 400 IM – #2 (4:28.22)
- 200 free – t-#14 (1:56.06)
- 400 free – #27 (4:06.85)
- 100 breast – t-#40 (1:07.01)
- 100 free – t-#63 (54.35)
McKeown got here out of the Olympics on hearth, breaking the world document within the girls’s 100 again in brief course meters on the Australian SC Championships in September, touching in 54.56 to erase fellow Aussie Minna Atherton‘s five-year-old mark of 54.89.
McKeown additionally swam to a brand new Aussie Document within the 50 again (25.40) on the meet, rating her #2 all-time (on the time), after which she bettered that efficiency the next month in the course of the first day of the World Cup circuit in Shanghai, clocking 25.36.
She additionally completed third within the 100 IM in a PB of 57.76, however after at some point of racing the sequence, McKeown introduced she was withdrawing and placing her “psychological well being first,” having already opted out of the Quick Course World Championships.
The 12 months could not have featured as many world data as 2023 for McKeown, however because the lone Australian to win a number of particular person golds in Paris, and tying for second amongst all athletes on the Video games with 5 medals, there’s no denying her because the Oceanian Feminine Swimmer of the Yr for the third straight time.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – After successful three relay medals in Tokyo, O’Callaghan raced her first particular person occasions on the Olympics in Paris, strolling away with 5 medals highlighted by a person gold within the girls’s 200 free. Racing head-to-head with Aussie rival Ariarne Titmus, O’Callaghan pulled away on the final 50 to win gold in an Olympic Document time of 1:53.27. That swim got here after the 2 had an thrilling showdown on the Australian Olympic Trials, the place Titmus broke the world document (1:52.23) and O’Callaghan went 1:52.48, beneath her earlier document of 1:52.85. In Paris, O’Callaghan led off the victorious girls’s 4×100 free and 4×200 free relays for Australia, each setting Olympic Information, and anchored the silver medal-winning girls’s medley relay and the bronze medal-winning blended medley relay. In her different particular person race of the Video games, the 100 free, she positioned 4th in a time of 52.34, one one-hundredth shy of a medal. On the Olympic Trials, along with her 200 free swim which ranks #2 all-time, O’Callaghan turned simply the fourth lady in historical past to interrupt 58 seconds within the 100 again, clocking 57.88 to rank #4 all-time (now #5). She in the end dropped the 100 again from her Olympic program, nevertheless. She finishes the 12 months ranked 2nd on this planet within the 100 free and 200 free, 4th within the 100 again, and in addition 18th within the 50 free (24.49).
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS) – Titmus was among the many swimmers to win three particular person medals in Paris, defending her Olympic title within the girls’s 400 free whereas including silver medals within the 200 free behind O’Callaghan and within the 800 free behind Katie Ledecky. Titmus additionally produced a blistering 1:52.95 anchor leg on the Aussie girls’s 4×200 free relay that received gold, giving her 4 medals on the Video games. Her 800 free swim in Paris additionally marked a brand new Oceanian Document (8:12.29). A month and a half earlier on the Australian Olympic Trials, Titmus broke the world document within the girls’s 200 free (1:52.23), got here inside six one-hundredths of it within the 400 free (3:55.44), and received the 800 free (8:14.06). The now 24-year-old finishes the 12 months ranked 1st within the 200 free and 400 free, and third within the 800 free.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
- 2023 – Kaylee McKeown, Australia
- 2022 – Kaylee McKeown, Australia
- 2021 – Emma McKeon, Australia
- 2020 – Kaylee McKeown, Australia
- 2019 – Ariarne Titmus, Australia
- 2018 – Ariarne Titmus, Australia
- 2017 – Emily Seebohm, Australia
- 2016 – Cate Campbell, Australia
- 2015 – Emily Seebohm, Australia
- 2014 – Cate Campbell, Australia
- 2013 – Cate Campbell, Australia
