2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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Kaylee McKeown’s 200 backstroke victory in 1:59.26 just missed breaking her own world record from two years ago, but she still made history on Sunday at the 2022 Short Course World Championships.
The 200 back win solidified the 21-year-old Australian as the second woman ever to concurrently hold Olympic, Commonwealth, long-course world, and short-course world titles in the same event. Ariarne Titmus also accomplished the feat in the 400 free at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2018 World Championships (short course) 2019 World Championships (long course), and 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
McKeown almost achieved the feat in two events, but the LCM 100 back world record holder scratched her specialty event at Worlds this summer to focus on the 200 IM (where she took silver behind Alex Walsh).
McKeown joins fellow Aussie world record holders Titmus and Grant Hackett as the only swimmers to have won the same event at each of those four major competitions. Of course, by adding the Commonwealth Games to that list, about three-quarters of the world is effectively excluded from the criteria since only the 54 countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations compete there.
What made Hackett’s achievement so impressive was that he essentially accomplished the sweep twice across multiple Olympiads. He triumphed in the 1500 free at every major competition from the 1998 World Championships through the 2004 Olympics.
“I had no idea, and it’s pretty surreal,” McKeown said after the race. “To be up there with someone like him, it’s phenomenal.”
Defending her titles could only get more difficult as the target on her back grows bigger with each success. Fortunately for McKeown, the next three major competitions (2023 Worlds, 2024 Worlds, 2024 Olympics) all take place in the larger 50-meter pool, which she said she prefers.
“I was the chaser (before Tokyo) … and now I have all these girls wanting to chase me,” she said. “I just have to put myself back in that position and realize, hey, just because I’ve done this in my career, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be given to me the next time I step up to do it.”
Swimming in front of home fans in Melbourne, Australia, McKeown secured three gold medals at Short Course Worlds this week. On top of the 200 back, she picked up victories in the 100 back and 4×50 medley relay. Earlier in the meet, she also shaved a tenth of a second off her own Australian record in the 200 IM to become the country’s first short-course IM medalist since 2006.
the only things Kaylee is now missing in having the entire box set of 100/200 back achievements (WR’s, Olympic, World LC/SC, CWG, Pan Pac golds) is the LC 200 back WR, LC 100 back gold, SC 100 back WR, and then pan pac gold in both so it’ll be interesting to see how much of that she gets throughout the rest of her career
Titmus was 2018 SC worlds , not 2021. But she still held them concurrently.
I for one acknowledge this achievement, well done Kaylee.
This is done without trying to compare to other events, just what she has achieved in what in what competitions she choose to compete in. This is what the author was also trying to get at,
I was trying to think of other people who could be considered and the CWG caveat makes it really tough. A comparable (and arguably more impressive) achievement is Katinka’s utter dominance in the 200 IM LC and SC from 2013 to 2019. She won all SC and LC Worlds and Europeans during that time, plus her gold in Rio. The only blemishes for her on the 400 IM is when Belmonte out touched her at 2013 SC Euros and then beat her at 2014 SC Worlds to set the world record.
Ruta is a good non-CWG equivalent. I think we maybe did an article about this in our print magazine, but she was concurrently Olympic, World LC, World Junior, World SC, Euro SC, Euro Junior, Youth Olympic, and Euro Junior champion in the 100 breast. Only blemish was Euro LC.
Didn’t titmus hold these four titles concurrently in the period between Tokyo and last year’s short course worlds?
And held both WRs too…
Adding CWGs to the criteria really narrows the pool of potential swimmers able to do this.
Is there a swimmer who has done the same thing but swap Pan Pacs or Euros for CWGs?
I like this question, the one thing that makes it even harder if you have the Euros as one of the meets is that they have both long course and short course Euros and between 2000-2012 both took place in the same year as the Olympics, so most people might have skipped 1 or both of them. After 2012 SCM Euro have taken place in odd years.
The first year of the long course World Champs was 1973 and the first year of the short course was 1993, while the first year of the short course European Champs was 1991 (sprint events), and the Olympic events from 1996.
The list of potential candidates is very short as this… Read more »
You done her dirty with that pic selection…
Didn’t Maggie do the better version of this with the ncaa?
I would say NO because NCAA is only for people swimming in college in the USA. Winning this combo is probably extremely difficult (depending on which event you substitute the NCAA for) but the list of candidates is extremely small, but the NCAA is every year and the other events are normally every 2-4 years.
Maggie certainly has had quite the 4 years:
🥇2019 NCAA’s
🥇2019 LC Worlds
🥇2020(1) Olympics
🥇🚨2021 NCAA’s (1st 48 swimmer)
🥇2021 SC Worlds
**🥉2022 NCAAs**
**2022 relays only LC Worlds**
🥇2022 Commonwealth
🥇🚨2022 SC Worlds
The spring of 2022 being the only “imperfect” blip, regardless a remarkable 4 year run that seems to just be gaining momentum…
No. She won CGs after she had already given up the 100 free at LC Worlds. So she never held them all concurrently. And she didn’t hold the NCAA title concurrently either.
I know. Outlined clearly:
🥇2021 SC Worlds
**🥉2022 NCAAs**
**2022 relays only LC Worlds**
🥇2022 Commonwealth
She was however the first Olympic/Worlds/NCAA Champ, and throw in a world’s SC as well.
My point was that she did not hold all simultaneously, but simply has had a remarkable 4 yr run that doesn’t look like it’s ending any time soon.