With her gold medal in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Australian Emma McKeon earned her 10th gold medal, tying her with Susie O’Neill, Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones for the most gold medals in Commonwealth Games history.
All four athletes are swimmers from the nation of Australia, meaning that McKeon is still tied for the most gold medals won by an Australian and the most gold medals won by a swimmer as well. With her current medal count, McKeon owns 15 Commonwealth Games medals overall, 10 gold, 1 silver, and 4 bronze. Notably, a large portion of these medals have come on relays, with McKeon owning 8 gold medals from relays alone.
Emma McKeon’s Commonwealth Games Gold Medals:
- 2014 – Women’s 200 m freestyle
- 2014 – Women’s 4×100 m freestyle relay
- 2014 – Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay
- 2014 – Women’s 4×100 m medley relay
- 2018 – Women’s 100 m butterfly
- 2018 – Women’s 4×100 m freestyle relay
- 2018 – Women’s 4×200 m freestyle relay
- 2018 – Women’s 4×100 m medley relay
- 2022 – Mixed 4×100 m freestyle relay
- 2022 – Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay
Over the remainder of the week, McKeon still has several events including the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 50 butterfly, plus the 4×100 mixed freestyle relay on her plate, giving her plenty of opportunity to build upon her record-breaking haul. In addition, she is in the position to challenge shooters Phillip Adams and Mick Gault for the most Commonwealth Games medals of all-time as they currently each have 18.
In route to her record-breaking gold medal McKeon anchored the Australian women’s 4×100 freestyle relay in a time of 52.04, leading the team to victory. Earlier in the session, McKeon just missed the record-setting gold medal when Canadian Maggie MacNeil out-touched her by .02 for the gold medal in the 100 butterfly.
McKeon’s achievement comes only a year after a historic 2021 Olympic Games that saw her earn 7 medals en route to becoming the most decorated Australian Olympian of all-time and becoming the most decorated female athlete at a single edition of the Olympic Games.
But still not as impressive as either of O’Neill, Thorpe and Jones who had 5, 5 and 7 individual golds respectively.
I don’t rubbish the CG’s like so many others but I hate it when the Australian media post articles saying: ” X swimmer has won X number of Olympic gold medals and X number of CG gold medals” as if the two are comparabe. The WC’s are often not mentioned when a swimmer’s career is summed up and the Pan Pacs are almost always ignored even though it is a superior to the CG’s.
They mention them because that’s what the public cares about. The public could not give AF about World Chanpionships or Pan Pacs. I can guarantee you less than 3% of the Australian public would even know what Pan Pacs are.
As people have been saying for months, the public views the Comm Games as essentially a smaller Olympics. Winning a Comm Games medal would do way more for your public profile than a Pan Pacs or Worlds medal.
Much like Allyson Felix in athletics, those who win most INDIVIDUAL golds/medals in an Olympics or other Games should be the most highly regarded.
Not saying Emma shouldn’t be respected but any comparisons like this should list individual medals vs total (which includes relays).
yh. as a fan of Track and swimming seeing both athletes respective media hype them up by saying they have x medals feels weird knowing the breakdown of their medals and how they don’t even really have world records or extremely insane times
She has a massive collection of medals now and will get even more in the next few years.
Still no WRs though. Maybe the 100 free is her best shot.
She has the second fastest LCM 100 free of all time and second fastest SCM 100 free of all time. She’s as close as you can be without getting there.
It would be pretty shocking for her not to get another one. Seems she will swim both the medley relay and 200 relay, both of which are heavy gold medal favourites. She will also likely swim the mixed medley which is a solid gold medal favourite.
She also has a chance in both the 50 and 100 free but they will be close. She won’t be in the mix for the 50 fly.
And yet Emma has never won an individual event racing across four different LCM World Championships. Go figure…
Like Jenny Thompson at the Olympics
She’s won 2 individual Olympic golds which is more than 99.99% of professional swimmers
and she hasn’t finished yet!
Last year was her break out year individually speaking. She’s a late bloomer.
Yeah after what happened at the Olympics last year I think it’s gonna be close on those both relays but I also expect us womens also to come back strong and they do not want to repeat last year .
Well-deserved. Talented and hardworking champion.