2024 AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, April 17th – Saturday, April 20th
- Prelims at 10am local (8pm previous night ET), Finals at 6pm local (4am ET)
- Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Queensland, Australia
- LCM (50m)
- Non-Olympic Qualifying Event
- Women’s Races to Watch/Men’s Races to Watch
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap | Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap|Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Recap
- Live Results (also available via Meet Mobile: “2024 Australian Open Championships”)
- Australian Channel 9 Livestream / YouTube Livestream
Olympic multi-gold medalist Kaylee McKeown ended her 2024 Australian Open Championships with a successful 4-for-4 gold medal campaign.
The 22-year-old Griffith superstar stole the spotlight in each of her races, topping the podium across the 50m/200m back and 200m/400m IM events.
These championships are considered an in-season meet as the Australian Olympic Trials aren’t on the calendar until June. That makes McKeown’s outings even more impressive as we look ahead to who will represent the green and gold in Paris at this summer’s Games.
As it stands right now, McKeown is ranked as the #1 swimmer across each of the aforementioned events, giving credence to the opinions that voice she is the best overall swimmer on the planet at the moment.
Let’s review what McKeown accomplished in her whirlwind of a meet.
- 200 IM – 2:06.99, Australian & Oceanian Record, #1 in the world this season
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 IM
McKEOWN
2:06.99
| 2 | Kate DOUGLASS | USA | 2:07.05 | 02/12 |
| 3 | Summer MCINTOSH | CAN | 2:07.16 | 01/13 |
| 4 | Alex WALSH | USA | 2:07.63 | 01/13 |
| 5 | Yiting YU | CHN | 2:07.75 | 09/25 |
- 400 IM – 4:08.22, Australian & Oceanian Record, #1 in the world this season
2023-2024 LCM Women 400 IM
MCKEOWN
4:28.22
| 2 | Summer McINTOSH | CAN | 4:29.96 | 12/01 |
| 3 | Katie GRIMES | USA | 4:32.45 | 04/13 |
| 4 | Freya Colbert | GBR | 4:34.01 | 04/04 |
| 5 | Vivien JACKL | HUN | 4:34.96 | 04/11 |
- 50 Back – 27.07, All Comers Record; McKeown’s 26.86 World Record from the 2023 Budapest World Cup already ranked her #1 in the world this season
2023-2024 LCM Women 50 Back
McKEOWN
26.86 WR
| 2 | Mollie O'CALLAGHAN | AUS | 27.16 | 04/19 |
| 3 | Kylie MASSE | CAN | 27.23 | 02/21 |
| 4 | Xueer WANG | CHN | 27.35 | 09/25 |
| 5 | Letian WAN | CHN | 27.41 | 09/25 |
- 100 Back – N/A, McKeown did not race the 100m back at this competition but already ranked #1 in the world with the 57.33 World Record from the 2023 Budapest World Cup
2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Back
McKEOWN
57.33 WR
| 2 | Regan SMITH | USA | 57.64 | 03/08 |
| 3 | Mollie O'CALLAGHAN | AUS | 58.09 | 04/18 |
| 4 | Claire CURZAN | USA | 58.29 | 02/13 |
| 5 | Katharine BERKOFF | USA | 58.61 | 12/01 |
- 200 Back – 2:03.84, 6th-fastest performance in history
2023-2024 LCM Women 200 Back
McKEOWN
2:03.84
| 2 | Regan SMITH | USA | 2:03.99 | 03/09 |
| 3 | Claire CURZAN | USA | 2:05.77 | 02/17 |
| 4 | Summer McINTOSH | CAN | 2:06.81 | 12/02 |
| 5 | Jaclyn BARCLAY | AUS | 2:07.03 | 02/17 |
This is a major achievement from a high quality swimmer and she is not done yet wait for the real competion Aussie trials she will bust the bank
Swimswam loves this pic of Kaylee. But it’s better than when they used to always use the pic of her spitting water.
Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girl boss.
Kaylee is killing it. She has a chance to make history in Paris so I hope she’s able to produce her best there
Kaylee McKeown is without a doubt the best swimmer in the world today, regardless of what happens in the Olympics she will be the best swimmer in Australia.
Sometimes I think that more importance is given to free swimmers in their country, like MOC, who practically until now has not achieved the same as her teammates. And I do appreciate that MOC is a good swimmer but not at her level.
I don’t think it’s that there is more importance given to freestyle but there is more responsibility because of the relays that come along with freestyle. If MOC didn’t have so much relay responsibility we’d see her in more backstroke.
So glad she decided to peak this weekend
Australian swimmers live rent free in your head.
Hahaha wait till paris
Kaylee is always at her peak. Including at the Olympics.
You must be new here. Kaylee swims fast all the time, which is fairly obvious if you pay any attention at all.
They aren’t new. They just hate Australia and Australian swimmers.
Hahaha the trolls are scared of Kaylee
No other swimmer, male or female, is even close to five #1.
She’s a tough cookie.
And that’s why she should be #1 on top 100 women’s rankings.
She *is* Swimswam’s female swimmer of 2023.
As for Swimswam’s top 100 of 2024, I agree with Swimswam. She’s a close second to Summer McIntosh as Summer has more individual events in Paris and thus has higher ceiling for individual gold.
I’m a Summer fan but she is only a heavy favorite in 1 event, 4IM. Could she get gold in the 2fly, yes but she’s not a lock. In the 2IM and 2-4 free, she get gold or get shut out
She’s not getting shut out in the 400 free lol, that was just a bad race and a fluke. Even though there’s 4 other contenders in the 200IM, I don’t see it happening either, she’ll have three days of rest between finals.
I agree she won’t get shut out in the 2IM but she doesn’t have any days of rest.
If she swims the 2IM, she will swim every single day between day 1 and day 8. If she skips 200 free she will have day 2 off but that’s it. Day 6 is 200 fly final and 200 free relay final. Day 7 is 200IM prelim and semi. Day 8 is 200IM final.
It’s about time the USA abandons SCY. Notice how Americans (besides Bobby Finke and Katie Ledecky) can’t handle anything above a 200m race and struggle to even close 50s, 100s, and 200s? It’s so simple – how can you match the endurance of those who train in meters when you train for races that are by definition shorter? That’s why McKeown will always have Smith’s number.
And don’t give me that crap about practicing turns and underwaters. Newsflash, that could be done in a SCM pool, which most SCY pools could be converted to.
“That’s why McKeown will always have Smith’s number.”
Regan Smith has been training in 50m pool for the past 2 years.
Then why aren’t Aussie men crushing American men? Yes, something amazing is happening with Aussie women, but it can’t have anything to do with scy yard training.
They are in a lot
Because they have less than 10% the Population of the US and accordingly a lot fewer swimmers and talents
Converting thousands of high schools and YMCAs etc to meters would not be cheap. I don’t disagree that doing yards is dumb (though it’s not THAT much different than 25m in terms of building endurance as you cite) but I don’t see thousands of local high schools using their withering budgets to add 3 meters onto their pools so they can be more relevant and competitive in international swimming, which, unfortunately, very few people here even care about.