Australia’s Kaylee McKeown and USA’s Lydia Jacoby opened a fresh new chapter in this morning’s women’s finals, becoming Olympic champions the 100m back and the 100m breast respectively. They both faced with world champions, current or previous world record holders, or the Olympic title-holders but these two youngsters offered perfect races: the 20 year-old Aussie and the 17 year-old American both had a convincing win.
Women’s 100m back
It was Kaylee McKeown’s time. The
Australian broke to the scene this spring as she bettered the world record
(57.45) at the trials, positioning herself among the top favourites. Indeed,
she could have even made a mark in the 200m IM (where she also leads the world
ranks) but she was withdrawn in order to focus on her backstroke swims.
Indeed, in the past years the
approach was something similar back home. Her talent was imminent, was selected
for the senior team at the age of 15, but her coach Chris Mooney and the family
made a deal: no rush, have a normal life, sit in school, get good education, do
not train long hours in the early teen years – contrary to what all kids do if
they look talented enough. Well, McKeown was not only just talented, she was
destined something really big – still, those around her didn’t want that
immediately. Which is somewhat amazing as our world seems to credit the instant
success everywhere… Are you really good in something? Come on, show it, gift
everyone, we return benefits you for that, just give yours all… And that can
lead many times to early burnouts and lives ruined on the long term.
This final validated everything the
coach and the family had done by breaking away from the ‘traditions’. McKeown,
now 20, arrived to Tokyo as a swimmer being ready to rock. And she rocked the
field which had already produced one Olympic record after the other in the
heats and semis as we had former WR-holder Regan Smith (USA) and defending
world champion Kylie Masse (CAN) in the mix too. But when it counted the most,
it was McKeown who came out on top. Masse turned first but in the second 50m
the Aussie blew the field away. She gained 0.60 sec both on Smith and Masse
while storming ahead to win it in 57.47, just 0.02sec shy of her WR, though
good for another OR. Masse got the silver, Smith, turning 4th, came third.
"It's not necessarily what I've
been through as everybody has a journey of their own and it just so happens
that mine has been a really tough one” McKeown said (referring to losing his
father last year). "I wouldn't have it any other way because I don't think
I'd be where I am today without all that has happened."
As for the race, she offered this:
"My legs were definitely hurting in the last 20m ... but I have trained
for that and I knew I had a really strong back-end and a really good chance to
be on the podium. I'm just thankful that I have come away with the position
that I have."
World champion Masse was content with
her silver medal. “It would have been incredible to have got gold, I would have
absolutely loved that. I am still really happy with the silver. I knew it was
going to be a challenge. Kaylee has the world record, she has been swimming so
fast this whole year and I would have had to go 57.3 (seconds) to beat her. I
just didn't do that today. I went my second-fastest time I've ever gone and I
have to be happy with that and proud of that in an Olympic final."
On a sidenote, the Aussie women kept
their one gold per day rhythm – and we have five more sessions to come…
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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