2023 VICTORIAN OPEN LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- February 17 – 19, 2023
- Melbourne Sports Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Psych Sheets
- Day 1 Recap
- Results – Meet Mobile: 2023 Victorian Open LC Championships
The 2023 Victorian Open Long Course Championships concluded its day two but not before multi-Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown ripped a head-turning swim in the women’s 100m backstroke.
The 21-year-old Griffith swimmer crushed a winning time of 57.93 to not only beat the field by nearly 4 seconds but also log her swiftest effort since the 2020 Olympic Games.
Opening in 28.20 and closing in 29.73, McKeown’s 57.93 checked in as the 13th fastest time in history and the best time in the world this season. Her performance narrowly beats out American Regan Smith‘s world-leading 57.95 clocked at the U.S. Open last December.
2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Back
McKeown
57.50
| 2 | Regan Smith | USA | 57.71 | 06/30 |
| 3 | Katharine Berkoff | USA | 58.01 | 06/30 |
| 4 | Mollie O'Callaghan | AUS | 58.42 | 06/14 |
| 5 | Claire Curzan | USA | 58.59 | 06/30 |
Specific to McKeown, her time tonight in Victoria represents her 5th fastest outing over the course of her career. She remains just one of three women to have ever delved under the 58-second threshold in this event, with Canada’s Kylie Masse and Smith both also having accomplished the feat.
Kaylee McKeown‘s Top 5 LCM 100 Backstroke Times
- 57.45 2021 Australian Trials, World Record
- 57.47 2021 Olympic Games
- 57.63 2021 Sydney Open
- 57.88 2021 Olympic Games
- 57.93 2020 Queensland Championships/2022 Vic Open
McKeown took gold in this women’s 100m back event at the 2020 Olympic Games with a time of 57.47 while her result tonight would have been good enough for the bronze medal in Tokyo.
More recently, at the 2022 World Championships, her 57.93 here would have captured the gold, beating out Smith’s winning effort of 58.22. As a refresher, McKeown dropped the 100m back in Budapest so she could focus on the 200m IM sans conflicts. She took silver in that 2IM in a time of 2:08.57.
McKeown already put up the fastest time of her career last night in an ‘off event’ of the women’s 100m breaststroke, registering a time of 1:06.86. She also scored a solid time of 54.66 just minutes later in the 100m free to produce a result among her top 3 career-best times.
The Michael Bohl-trained star was slated to also race the women’s 200m breaststroke tonight but wound up dropping the event.
Look for a full day-two recap of today’s events in Victoria to follow.
Kaylee scratched the 2IM.
Nauurrrrr.
I hope that means she has a fantastic 200 free coming up. Would have preferred to see the IM
No real notable performances from this morning. Kaylee roughly 6 seconds off her best in the 2 free and 2IM. I suspect she may repeat what she did yesterday and drop the 2 free final to see what she can do in the 2IM.
Cooper and Yang were 0.42 and 0.35 off PBs in the 50 free so I wouldn’t expect PBs in the finals session.
Great swim by Kaylee. Definitely shows that she is still right up there in the 100 back despite her times being a little off last year.
She always went fast times in-season but that appeared to stop when she switched coaches to Bohl, but I guess it’s back now. I was critical of her switch (why change from a coach who turned you into a triple Olympic champion) but now I’m excited to see what she can achieve after being with Bohl for a couple of years.
Compared to her times at tapered meets she was still fast in season last year but just wasn’t in 2021 shape.
Remind me, did her coach move and that’s why she switched?
Yes, but she ended up moving to the same city her coach moved to but a different club so she must have wanted a change anyway.
Ah I see. Thanks!
She also went 1.06 in the 100 breast 54.6 100free 10 mins later
Great confidence swim for Kaylee. Her fastest 100 backstroke since last February where she went 58.3 & 2:04.6 in the backstrokes. And her first 57 since Tokyo. She seems to always swim fast around the February/March time and hold through to the championship meets, with last LCM championship season being the outlier – though it sort of seemed like there may have been another shoulder concern around that time. Her SC World PB performances sort of foreshadowed this sort of meet coming for her. Great news for her heading into LCM season. Excited for her 2IM later in the meet, especially after that 1:06 breast.
Why always the pics of her spitting water? Surely there are better options
How can you tell which direction it’s headed?
All the Americans on SwimSwam two weeks ago:
McKeown is finished, Smith is winning the 100, even Curzan will beat her
Well, how about now?
2 weeks ago? When were we only talking about US Trials? No one was talking about McKeown; Aussies only imagine this so they can make comments like this.
I’m not Aussie 🙂
are the americans in this room rn? i swear you people imagine shit just to get mad at bc your lives are so boring
You are.
your mama
Your Dada.
your grandma
I don’t remember anyone saying she is finished.
I’m on this website all the time and I take note of the dumb stuff the Americans say (because they say dumb stuff a lot) but I don’t recall seeing any comments like this at all. Care to link one?
the source is a dream they had