Five-time Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown has announced that she will be forgoing individual medley races at all international competitions moving forward. She told 7News Sunshine Coast, “Training for medley is something I’ll still do and keep up in maybe domestic racing, just not internationally.”
The 23-year-old, best known for her historic double-double sweep of both backstroke events at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games, has long shown promise in the individual medley events since her junior years.
She entered the Tokyo Olympics as a slight favorite for gold in the 200 IM but ultimately dropped the event. Her season-best time that year would have been enough to win gold had she competed. After Tokyo, McKeown’s longtime coach at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Chris Mooney, took a new job, prompting her to seek a new coaching environment rather than follow him. She subsequently began training under Michael Bohl at Griffith, who strongly encouraged her to pursue the IM at the international level.
While McKeown set an Australian record of 4:28.22 in the 400 IM at the Australian Open in April 2024—earning her the #3 all-time performer status—she only chose to compete in the 200 IM at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, in addition to the 2024 Paris Games. She won silver in 2022 but was disqualified in 2023 due to a controversial crossover turn call. In Paris, she initially touched 4th in 2:08.08, but was bumped onto the podium after Team USA’s Alex Walsh—the 2022 world champion and original third-place finisher—was disqualified for a crossover turn violation.
At the Australian Trials a month prior, McKeown threw down a 2:06.63—just 0.07 off the eventual winning time of 2:06.56 by Canadian Summer McIntosh in Paris.
After Paris, McKeown eased off her training, competing lightly at the Short Course Nationals and the first leg of the World Cup in October before withdrawing. She then took four months completely off from training and has only been back in the pool for a few short months.
When she returned, McKeown relocated back to USC, where Michael Sage is now at the helm.
“It’s been a long three years away, but I couldn’t be more thankful to be back in this environment with people I know. The environment here just feels more like me, and I’m fitting in quite nicely,” she said.
“I didn’t touch a pool or a gym (during that break), so it’s been quite refreshing but also really hard getting back into it. I just felt like I needed a bit of a change.”
Moving forward, McKeown emphasized that she wants to prioritize happiness in the later stages of her career. She also expressed a desire to compete at the World Championships in Singapore this July, despite taking an extended break. With the Australian World Trials scheduled for next month, she remains uncertain about which events—and how many—she will swim.
“Tokyo was, I like to say, for my dad. Paris, I just kind of wanted to prove a point—that I wasn’t a one-hit wonder. And I’d like to think that LA is just going to be for me. I’ve worked so hard over the past seven years to do what I’ve done, and I really want to enjoy the end of my career,” McKeown said.
“I would love to go to Worlds. I’m yet to figure out what events I’m going to swim. I’m not as fit as I’d like to be and not as confident as I’d like to be, but in saying that, I like a challenge.”
She currently holds the world records in the 50 and 200 backstroke events and leads the world rankings in those two distances. In the 100 back, she’s situated in 2nd, just two tenths of a second behind American world record holder and her closest competitor across all three distances, Regan Smith.
The 50 back was recently added to the Olympic program by the IOC, and with an additional backstroke event potentially on her schedule for the Los Angeles Games in 2028, it could have played a key role—along with her desire to enjoy the backend of her career by swimming the events she wants—in her decision to drop the IM races.
“And I’d like to think that LA is just going to be for me. I’ve worked so hard over the past seven years to do what I’ve done, and I really want to enjoy the end of my career,” McKeown said.”
Uh oh. If she performs well, LA will cement her as the world’s greatest (male or female) backstroker ever.
It would certainly make her untouchable
Good 👍 We need you strong in Relay Kaylee
Yay for Alex!! Kaylee is awesome, but more chance for AW
It definitely makes sense. Her main goal is clearly LA, and she had to deal with a ridiculous clash of the 200 back and 200IM (despite those two events having significant crossover).
So on top of her 100 and 200 back, she can either swim 3×50 back with guaranteed no clashes, or 3×200 IM with a likely terrible clash. It’s really a no brainer.
Also hoping with dropping the 2IM she might look at going for the 200 free relay…
I definitely agree with this take. And she has a PB of 1.56.06 in the 200 free – I’d even say she has a 1.54 relay split in her.
Please stop!
stop what? stating my thoughts. She is definitely capable of a 1.54 something split – never doubt the goat backstroker.
Being great at backstroke doesn’t translate to being a 1:54 freestyler.
I don’t necessarily think she has a 1:54 split, but her flat start PB is a 1:56.0, which translates to a 1:55.5 split. So she’s not THAT far off if she decided to put some focus on it
yeah – if she puts more focus on it – it’s possible.
I blame semi-finals…McKeown (on times) is one of the greatest 200 and 400 Medley swimmers in history, but hardly ever raced them.
Lol
She is the third fastest ever in 200 and 400 IM.
She hates the 4IM and never would have raced it anyway. But yeah, she maybe wins the 2IM in Tokyo if the 200s didn’t have semis
This is why they shouldn’t have added stroke 50s.
It is an obvious choice for since the 50m backstroke became an olympic event.