The fastest women’s backstroker in the world wants to go even faster.
“I would love to be the first swimmer to go under the 57 mark,” said 22-year-old Australian Kaylee McKeown, who lowered her own world record in the 100 back from 57.45 to 57.33 during last weekend’s World Cup stop in Budapest, Hungary.
“It’s something that Bohly keeps whispering in my ear,” McKeown told 60 Minutes Australia in a recent profile, referring to decorated Griffith University coach Michael Bohl. “Like, ‘You know, you could really do this.'”
Bohl has high hopes for McKeown because he sees how much the three-time Olympic champion pushes herself — and her teammates — in practice.
“It’s not enough to have the success she had last time,” Bohl said of McKeown, who won Olympic gold medals in the 100 back, 200 back, and 400 medley relay in Tokyo. “She wants more. She’s probably one of the most focused, high-demand-of-herself-and-her-teammates athletes I’ve ever coached.
“We might do a 400 warmup and off every wall, we might say, ‘Take eight kicks,’ Bohl recalled. “After 100 meters, she’ll stop and she’ll say, ‘That person over there is only taking five, that person is only taking four.’ So I’ve got to say, ‘Kaylee, they’re not going to help your results in Paris, focus on what you’re going to do.’ It’s a good problem, but you just got to manage it.”
McKeown said she’s just trying to bring out the best in her teammates. Her motivation reached a new level after the death of her father, Sholto, in 2020 after a two-year battle with brain cancer.
“I got so angry with the world,” McKeown said. “Why are you walking up to training if you’re not going to give 100%? You could die tomorrow.
“At the end of the day, I’m trying to bring out the best in the people around me,” she explained. “I hope one day people can reflect on that and realize I’m not this big meanie trying to pick on them, I’m actually trying to make them the best athlete they can be.”
McKeown shared how she’s reminded of her dad before each race with “I’ll always be with you” tattooed on her foot.
“Something that he always said to mom was ‘I’ll always be with you,'” McKeown said. “When I get down on the blocks, I’m always staring at my feet or when I’m getting set for backstroke, I’m always looking at my foot.”
The segment also discussed McKeown’s relationship with fellow Tokyo Olympian Brendon Smith, who joined Bohl’s training group at Griffith last year.
“One of the first things I did was sit them down together and just say, ‘Look, both of your goals are Paris,'” Bohl said. “I’ve said it before in squads, when relationships go separate, it can be a little bit ugly — it’s not good for the other team members, it’s not good for me, and it’s not good for Kaylee and Brendon. They’ve got to manage that relationship. They’ve done it well so far, and we hope that’s the case for the next 11 months,” he added before joking, “I don’t care what happens after that.”
Their is a case building up that Kayleen could become our greatest ever female swimmer . If she takes down the 100/200 back in Paris I believe she needs to take down 200 I’m and then yes she is the greatest
A woman going 56 high will bring the 100back WR back inline with the men’s 100breast. In my opinion, this will take away from of shine from the view that Peaty is bringing his event ahead 2 generations.
Or will it just mean that Kaylee is also generations ahead of her field?
i really don’t see how the performance of a female in a completely different event will effect the views of Peaty.
at this point there is 1 swimmer within a second of his best performance.
there is 2 swimmers faster than his his first WR set 8 years ago.
he won every important LCM 100 breaststroke he competed in between 2014 and 2021.
downplaying Petrys’ ridiculous ability and success is crazy to me.
WTH does M 100 BR have to do with W 100 BK?
How so? They are not related to each other. Besides that, who cares?
Yes, also, if she goes 56 people are gonna have to reassess how they view the Spanish Inquisition and the impact it had on the world.
If Kaylee goes 56 how will this affect LeBron’s legacy?
She’s certainly a tough swimmer.
Breaking WR and then won 3 Olympics golds several months after her father died?
But apparently Regan had it tougher leading into Tokyo 🥴
covid was so hard on regan
Don’t you know Covid pandemic only affected USA?
and only Regan?
Australian athletes definitely had it better than most, especially outside of Victoria.
Kaylee wouldn’t have had significant time out of the water. I believe the California athletes did.
that doesn’t mean kaylee isn’t amazing though.
Citations required.
Please stop dumping on Regan to build Kaylee up. She gets enough of it from the American comments here. And she has never made excuses, again it’s just the commenters in here.
Let’s enjoy and respect 2 great swimmers who also appear to be lovely people.
I think they are making fun of Swimswam peanut gallery who repeatedly claimed that Regan was heavily affected by the pandemic that led to her 2021 results. It’s sarcasm.
They’re definitely not dumping on Regan.
Exactly 👍
Kaylee had an incredible performance in Tokyo despite everything she went through that year. But it’s also clear that Regan was heavily affected by the pandemic and the pressure leading into Tokyo. Both things are true. There’s no need to demean Regan’s experience. There are many ways to compliment how awesome Kaylee is that don’t involve punching down at Regan.
Many Aussies on here simultaneously manage to be both bad winners and bad losers.
I am a massive Regan Smith defender on here. She does get heaps of unfair criticism.
However, despite Kaylee’s incredible achievements, there are constant numerous comments saying that Smith is actually better but Kaylee only wins because Smith has had bad luck. I think after 4 years of constant winning it’s ridiculous to claim Kaylee isn’t superior, at least for now. I assume these comments are making fun of the commenters making excuses and not intending to trash Regan.
THIS 100%
Likewise, Regan is a great athlete and has accomplished great things.
But the peanut gallery here is something else.
Feel she gets dragged more by the US fans than the Aussies and then the US fans either make excuses or make fun of her. It’s sad really.
What I often saw is the claims that Regan lost and Kaylee won just because Regan had it tougher than Kaylee.
Or that Kaylee just because Regan has mental block against Kaylee.
So what do you say about those?
There are lots of inane comments on this site. But most of yours are mirror images of the rabid American comments. Two wrongs don’t make a right and all that
It’s another project 56
It was a shame that the interviewer (Sylvia Jeffreys) was so poor. To interview Kaylee in October 2023 and to literally not mention her feats at the 2023 World Championships is almost criminal. She also asked Michael Bohl whether there was a danger Kaylee could be a one-hit wonder (if she doesn’t do well at the Olympics next year) – totally ignoring all Kaylee has achieved in 2022 and especially 2023. And I would have thought a question about the rivalry with Regan was required. When Mel Stewart interviewed Kaylee a month or so ago he asked about how Kaylee gets along with Regan, and the answer included the interesting fact that Kaylee had suggested to Regan that she was… Read more »
Agree with all your points. 60 minutes is pretty poor viewing now. Has been for a long while.
Swimmers have been getting more media attention earlier in the Olympic lead up this time around. Titmus had a 60 minutes interview 6 months ago and was on the Project post worlds, Chalmers was on ACA earlier this week and Short and Pallister were on ACA in the lead up to worlds. We will probably see McEvoy/MOC/ZCS on ACA at some point and McKeon on 60 minutes. Not to mention Cate’s appearance on the Today show….
Glad to see the swimmers getting some media attention, even if the quality of the interview questions are substandard.
And we will soon be seeing Chalmers in a Wahl shaver advertisement on tv sporting unusual hairstyles. The same company that sponsored Kaylee McKeown. Good to see the elevated attention swimming is getting these days.
Agreed – good to see the exposure and recognition, but they deserve having a serious sports journalist ask decent questions. I saw the Titmus interview and they at least mentioned her great rival Ledecky and the new one in Summer. I didn’t see the Chalmers one but again if it was a serious interview, then Dressel and Popovici should have got mentions as genuine rivals he will have to beat in Paris.
Channel 9 has the Olympic broadcast for the next 3 Olympics. They are setting it up well.
I’m worried about the channel 9 commentary. For all sports. They don’t have a great track record really.
At least they don’t have Basil Zempilas.
“We might do a 400 warmup and off every wall, we might say, ‘Take eight kicks,’ Bohl recalled. “After 100 meters, she’ll stop and she’ll say, ‘That person over there is only taking five, that person is only taking four.’
Ok narc
Yeah, that’s…weird for her age and performance level.
Not really. Quite a few exceptional athletes set high standards for themselves and won’t accept others not striving for the same high standards. Read a bit about Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and their disdain for any of their team-mates who didn’t try as hard or work as hard as they did.
For the most part, Jordan and Bryant’s teammates also hated them fwiw.
Kobe and Jordan also competed in a team sport where those teammates directly affected their ability to win or lose games
Bob Bowman said that as a teenager, Michael Phelps was aware of what everyone around him was doing, whether they were doing it right or wrong, and regularly tried to correct his teammates lol
Kaylee is the next Phelps confirmed
Listen to some of Roy Keane’s interviews about teammates not putting in at training.
LOL Bohly makes her sound like a snitch at school. “Miss, you told us to take 5 kicks but Johnny only took 4”. I don’t mean this in a bad way at all, it’s just hilarious the way it’s framed. And also “as long as they don’t break up before Paris I don’t care what happens after that” is so funny.
I love Kaylee and fully believe she is capable of a 56.
I also love the way they are approaching the Olympics. If her only goal was “repeat last time” then the pressure is really on her to win and winning depends on what others do. If her goal is to beat her best times and be the first… Read more »
But 8 kicks?! 😰
Wow she is so motivational❤️
Ye