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.
Kaylee has just announced she’s moving back to USC Spartans (Sunshine Coast, which is where she is from and is about 2.5 hours north of the Gold Coast where she’s been at Griffith).
Kaylee looks very strong and confident
I appreciate McKeown and Smith’s excellence in the backstroke events and their numerous swims in the 57-point range. The women’s backstroke events have been among the most exciting and anticipated races at the recent World Championships and Olympic Games for myself and many fans. At the same time, I want to recognize Kylie Masse’s story in this narrative too (of course, the author certainly mentions her throughout the article above too); although she does not have as many 57-point 100 backstroke races to her name, she has been dominant in the backstroke events over the past decade too, if dominance includes international podium finishes:
2016 Summer Olympics
🥉Bronze (tie with Fu Yuanhui) – 100 back
2016 World Aquatic Championships… Read more »
Indeed.
At Olympics level only 4 women have won 4 or more individual backstroke medals, and Masse is one of them.
She certainly is one of the top backstrokers of the past decade.
Okay let’s see… Kaylee McKeown, Kristzina Egerszegi, Kylie Masse, and… Kirsty Coventry?
That’s them… Egerszegi with 5, and the rest with 4.
McKeown and Egerszegi with 4 golds each, Coventry with 2, and Masse with none, but that total of Masse shows great career depth, longevity, and consistency.
berkoff has 5
She has 4: a 57.83 and a 57.91 from Trials and a 57.98 and 57.99 from Paris. She also has a 58.01.
she has two 57.99 from Paris I thought? in prelims and semis
57.99 in prelims, 58.27 in semis, 57.98 in the final.
oh swimccloud says two 57.99s
Kaylee is the Queen!!
nope! Regans better
Yeah so better….4 individual Olympic golds compared to ZERO
Facts:
Kaylee literally beat Regan every time they met in individual 50, 100, 200 backstroke LCM and SCM since 2019, while the last time Regan beat Kaylee in individual race was in 2019.
Kaylee won 4 Olympic individual backstroke gold, Regan 0
American:
Regan is better than Kaylee.
I know that Americans love fake news (hence the President convict), but this is too much.
Regan is an absolutely fantastic swimmer who has just been unlucky enough to come up against two of the all time best swimmers in Kaylee and Summer.
I think it’s truly insane that Kaylee has essentially been undefeated in all 100/200 individual races since 2020, given she’s had tough competition from the reigning world record holder for most of those races
It’s the question: World Record or Olympic Gold?
Over the 100 back, Regan has the WR, Kaylee has two Olympic gold medals.
Most athletes want to say “can’t I have both?”
But if it’s only one, Olympic Gold, because that is never taken away from you.
It’s always Olympic gold. Kaylee has broken the 100 back WR twice. Neither of them will be the WR holder in 15-20 years. But Olympic golds are forever
Regan is among the ones who love fake news