A Visual Look At McKeown & Smith’s 100 Back Dominance

2025 AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Monday, April 21st – Thursday, April 24th
• Prelims at 10am local (8pm ET night before)/Finals at 6pm local (4am ET)
• Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Queensland, Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Initial Entries
• Start List
• Live Results
• Livestream
• Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap | Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap

At the Australian Open, Kaylee McKeown decisively won the women’s 100 back decisively in 57.65. That marked her 22nd time under 58 seconds in that event, tying her with Regan Smith for the most, by far, of any woman.

There have only been 53* total 57-point swims in history. Smith was the first swimmer to break 58 seconds, doing so at the 2019 World Championships in 57.57.

Along with McKeown and Smith, the remaining nine sub-58 swims are split between Kylie Masse and Katharine Berkoff, with four each, and Mollie O’Callaghan, with one.

McKeown and Smith have dominated the upper echelon of this event for years. Their consistency is remarkable. Between them, they have the top 19 performances all-time and 23 of the top 25 (Masse has #19 and #22). The above chart shows the top 200 performances of all time in the event, with McKeown’s and Smith’s times highlighted. As you can see, they make up a significant amount of those top performances. Just the two of them make up more than a third of all the swims — 45 for Smith and 35 for McKeown (with another 35 for Masse).

So far in 2025, Smith has only raced once, winning the 100 back in a time of 58.64 at the San Antonio Pro Swim in early March.

One thing to look forward to on the road to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is not only the battles we’ll continue to see between Smith and McKeown in the 100 and 200 back, but there will also an extra significance added to the 50 back, which was officially added to the Olympic program earlier this month.

*If you include mixed medley relay leadoffs, there have been 56: Regan Smith has led off in 57.64 and 57.87, and Kaylee McKeown has done so in 57.90. That gives Smith the edge, with 24 57-point swims to McKeown’s 23.