McKeown Clocks #1 50 Back Time In The World This Season, Despite Illness Causing 200 IM Scratch

2026 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING TRIALS

• Monday, June 8 – Saturday, June 13, 2026
• Sydney, Australia
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Commonwealth Selection Criteria
• Pan Pac Selection Criteria
• Psych Sheets
• Heat Sheet
• Live Results
• Prelims Live Recaps: Day 1

Kaylee McKeown may have been battling illness through the first prelims session at the 2026 Australian Trials, as reported by Tom Decent of the Sydney Morning Herald, but while that resulted in a scratch in the 200 IM there were no issues for her in the 50 back.

She clocked a rapid 27.22 in her first LCM swim of the season, having scratched the event at the Australian Open Championships in April, moving ahead of Alina Gaufutdinova by 0.01 seconds.

McKeown was 58.06 in the 100 back and 2:05.66 in the 200 back at the Australian Open Championships two months ago, ranking her 3rd in the world for the season in both events. She swam a slightly faster 2:05.08 in the 200 back the month before, and will be the favorite to sweep the backstroke events at the Commonwealth Games this summer.

She won gold in the 100 back and 200 back four years ago in Birmingham, but took 3rd in the 50 back in 27.58 behind Kylie Masse and Mollie O’Callaghan.

McKeown is the world record holder in this event thanks to the 26.86 she swam in October 2023. Her swim this morning matched her 7th-best performance in history, and sets her up to potentially challenge the 27-second barrier this evening. No woman has broken 27 seconds more than once, with only McKeown, Katharine Berkoff (26.97), and Xiang Liu (26.98) ever having broken it once.

Kaylee McKeown, Top Ten 50 Back Swims

1. 26.86 – 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, Budapest (10/20/2023) (#1 all-time)
2. 27.02 – 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, Athens (10/13/2023) (#4 all-time)
3. 27.06 – 2025 NSW State Open Championships (03/23/2025) (#5 all-time)
4. 27.07 – 2024 Australian Championships (04/19/2024) (#7 all-time)
5. 27.08 – 2023 Fukuoka World Championships (07/27/2023) (#T-8 all-time)
6. 27.16 – 2021 Sydney Open (05/15/2021) (#T-23 all-time)
7. 27.22 – 2025 Australian Open Championships (04/23/2025)/2026 Australian Trials (06/08/2026) (#T-38 all-time)
8. –
9. 27.24 – 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, Berlin (10/06/2023) (#T-49 all-time)
10. 27.25 – 2024 NSW Championships (03/17/2024) (#T-53 all-time)

McKeown currently owns five of the fastest ten times in history and was the 2023 world champion in the event. She scratched the event at the world championships last summer, where she won the 100 back and 200 back, and was initially disqualified in the heats at Australian Trials last year before being reinstated.

Iona Anderson was a tenth off her PB in 27.55 for 2nd this morning, just ahead of Mollie O’Callaghan (27.67) and Alabama’s NCAA ‘A’ finalist Emily Jones (27.90), who broke 28 seconds for the first time. Hannah Fredericks matched Jones’ achievement, clocking 28.03 to lower her best by 0.06 seconds.

Jones moves up to 11th all-time among Australian swimmers in the event, while Fredericks moves down one spot to 13th despite improving her PB.

McKeown’s reported illness strikes at an inopportune time for her Commonwealth Games ambitions. With her scratch in the 200 IM today, she will likely not be eligible to swim the event in Glasgow next month given the qualification requirements mandated by Swim Australia.

She may still have the opportunity to swim the event at Pan Pacs this summer, with there being greater flexibility in terms of entries than at the Commonwealth Games. There is a three-per-nation limit for that meet, while Pan Pacs works similarly to the European Championships in that multiple swimmers from a nation can compete in an event, but only two can move through to the ‘A’ final.