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
- Live Results (also available via Meet Mobile: “2024 Australian Open Championships”)
- Australian Channel 9 Livestream / YouTube Livestream
22-year-old Kaylee McKeown continued her journey of impressive performances at the 2024 Australian Open Championships by firing off a new All Comers Record in the women’s 50m back.
Racing in tonight’s final, the Griffith University swimmer crushed a winning effort of 27.07 to erase her own previous All Comers benchmark of 27.16 established in 2021.
All Comers Records are akin to U.S. Open Records where they represent the fastest time ever produced in Australian soil by a swimmer from any nation.
McKeown’s lifetime best remains at the World Record 26.86 she crushed last year.
As a refresher, Michael Bohl-trained McKeown already cranked out Australian national records in the 200m IM and 400m IM at this competition.
Behind McKeown for silver tonight was 20-year-old 200m free world record holder Mollie O’Callaghan.
O’Callaghan of St. Peters Western clocked a new lifetime best of 27.16 to match McKeown’s previous All Comers Record.
Entering these championships, O’Callaghan had been as fast as 27.38 in her career but she hacked .22 off that effort to become the #2 Australian performer in history and 9th-best performer ever worldwide.
Top 5 Australian Women’s LCM 50 Backstroke Performers in History
- Kaylee McKeown – 26.86, 2023
- Mollie O’Callaghan – 27.16, 2024
- Emily Seebohm – 27.37, 2017
- Iona Anderson – 27.45, 2024
- Minna Atherton – 27.49, 2016
This is a follow-up to last night when O’Callaghan ripped a massive best time of 58.09 en route to gold in the 100 back. That performance elevated her to the 2nd fastest Australian in history in the event.
So happy to see this. She will definitely tank at the games.
Really?
Mollie’s backstroke is so impressive given it’s her SECOND stroke that she doesn’t even train for
She swam 27.1 and 58.0 in the 50/100. Both would have easily gotten gold at Doha (27.43 and 58.29). Probably would have won swimmer of the meet without even swimming freestyle
Day 3 is ho hum.
Kaylee and Ariarne and Rikako ⭐⭐⭐
Lani and MOC and Temple ⭐⭐
Cooper 👎👎👎
Men’s 100 back 👎👎👎👎👎
I would rate MOC’s 50 back ⭐⭐⭐
Always sad to see Minna’s name in the All-Time lists when, still at a young age, she can only make B-finals.
Crazy that not long ago she was World Championship silver medalist and then broke SCM 100 back WR.
Do you think she was over worked too young too soon and exploited for outcomes in the pursuit of short term success (medal obsessions) and then hit a mental and physical peak and now can’t do any more?