Introduction
Kaylee Rochelle McKeown OAM (/məˈkjuːən/, born 12 July 2001) is an Australian swimmer and quadruple Olympic gold medalist. She is the world record holder in the long course 50 metre backstroke and both the long course and short course 200 metre backstroke. She won gold in both the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke, as well as the 4×100 metre medley relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics staged in Tokyo in 2021. In 2023, she was named as the "Best Female Swimmer of the Year" by World Aquatics, after sweeping gold in all three events of backstroke (50m, 100m, and 200m) at all three World Cup legs, held in Berlin, Athens and Budapest in October, 2023.
Background
Kaylee McKeown was just 15 years old when she joined her older sister Taylor on the Australian Dolphins swim team. She was one of the youngest members. She currently trains with the Griffith University swim group with Michael Bohl as her coach.
Career
When she was 15 years old, McKeown competed at the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, held in August in Maui, Hawaii, United States, winning the gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke with a time of 2:10.01 and the bronze medal in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 1:01.01.
The following year, McKeown competed in the women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, placing fourth in a World Junior Record time of 2:06.76. McKeown earned her first senior international medal for swimming the heats of the mixed medley relay, in which Australia placed second in the final.
As a 16-year-old the next year, she was the youngest woman on the Swimming Australia roster for the 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. McKeown placed fifth in both the 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke events.
McKeown earned her first senior individual medal at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships with a silver medal in the 200 metre backstroke event.
In 2020, McKeown broke her first World Record in the short course 200 metre backstroke event, swimming a time of 1:58.94 at the Australian Championships.
2020 Summer Olympic Games
Leading up to the 2020 Summer Olympics, McKeown was the fastest swimmer in the 200 metre individual medley but withdrew from the event to concentrate on the backstroke. McKeown broke the world record in the 100 metre backstroke event at the 2021 Australian Swimming Trials swimming a time of 57.45.
McKeown won the 100 metre backstroke at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics setting a new Olympic record of 57.47 seconds and becoming the first Australian woman to win a backstroke event at an Olympic Games. She also won the 200 metre backstroke event in a time of 2:04.68, and swam the backstroke leg on the gold medal winning women's medley relay.
2022 World Short Course Championships
Following her performances at the 2022 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships, held in Sydney in August, McKeown was named to the roster for the 2022 World Short Course Championships. On the first day of competition, she ranked twelfth in the preliminaries of the 100 metre backstroke, qualifying for the semifinals with her time of 57.11 seconds. Later in the morning, she qualified for the final of the 200 metre individual medley with an overall rank of fourth in the preliminaries with a time of 2:06.07. In the evening session, she started off with a bronze medal-win in the 200 metre individual medley in an Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian record time of 2:03.57 before qualifying for the final of the 100 metre backstroke approximately 20 minutes later with a time of 56.35 seconds that ranked her sixth across both semifinal heats.
On day two, McKeown won the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke with a personal best time of 55.49 seconds. The morning of day three, she ranked tenth in the preliminaries of the 50 metre backstroke with a time of 26.24 seconds and advanced to the semifinals. In the evening semifinals, she placed ninth with a time of 26.09 seconds. Two days later, she swam the backstroke portion of the 4×50 metre medley relay in the preliminaries in a time of 26.42 seconds, helping qualify the relay to the final ranking first in an Oceanian and Australian record time of 1:44.78. When the finals relay placed first in a time of 1:42.35, she won a gold medal for her efforts in the preliminaries.
Day six of six, McKeown started in the morning in the preliminaries of the 200 metre backstroke, where she ranked second in 2:02.32 and advanced to the final. In the final, she was the only one to finish in a time faster than 2:00.00, winning the gold medal with a 1:59.26 that was 0.32 seconds slower than her world record mark from 2020. She concluded the session with a silver medal in the 4×100 metre medley relay, leading-off with a 55.74 for the backstroke portion to help finish in an Oceanian, Commonwealth, and Australian record time of 3:44.92.
2023 World Aquatics Championships
At the beginning of the 2023 season, McKeown broke the long course 200 metre backstroke world record at the 2023 NSW State Open Championships. With this record, McKeown became the second swimmer to hold the Olympic title, Commonwealth title, Long Course World Championship title, Short Course World Championship title, Long Course world record and Short Course world record in the same event concurrently, following compatriot Grant Hackett in the 1500 metre freestyle.
At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships McKeown swept the 50, 100 and 200 metre backstroke events, breaking the Oceanian record in the 50 metre backstroke and the championship record in the 100 metre backstroke. McKeown became only the second swimmer to ever win the 50, 100 and 200 metre events of the same stroke during the same championships, after China's Qin Haiyang completed the breaststroke sweep the day prior.
2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup
McKeown was the overall winner of the 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup after sweeping the backstroke events at all three stops. At the final stop in Budapest, McKeown broke both the 50 metre and 100 metre backstroke world records (breaking her own world record in the latter) and became the first woman to break the long course 50, 100 and 200 metre backstroke world records during their career, and the first woman to hold all three concurrently.
Results in major championships
| Meet | 50 back | 100 back | 200 back | 200 medley | 400 medley | 4×50 medley | 4×100 medley | 4×100 mixed medley |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PACJ 2016 | — |  |  | 17th | — | — | ||
| WC 2017 | 4th | 16th | — |  | ||||
| CG 2018 | 4th | 4th | 9th | — | — | |||
| PAC 2018 | — | 5th | 5th | — | ||||
| YOG 2018 | | | | 7th | — | | 9th | |
| WC 2019 | 4th | 5th | | — | | |||
| OG 2020 | — | | | — | | | ||
| WC 2022 | 5th | DNS | | | — | | | |
| CG 2022 | | | | | — | | | |
| SCW 2022 | 9th | | | | | | — | |
| WC 2023 | | | | DQ | — | | | |
| OG 2024 | — | | — |
Career best times
Long course metres (50 m pool)
- As of 11 June 2024
| Event | Time | Meet | Location | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 m freestyle | 26.59 | Queensland Championships | Brisbane | 14 December 2020 | |
| NSW Open Championships | Sydney | 18 March 2021 | |||
| 100 m freestyle | 54.29 | NSW Open Championships | Sydney | 18 March 2021 | |
| 200 m freestyle | 1:56.14 | 2023 Queensland Championships | Brisbane | 10 December 2023 | |
| 400 m freestyle | 4:06.85 | Victorian Open Championships | Melbourne | 24 February 2024 | |
| 50 m backstroke | 26.86 | 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup | Budapest | 20 October 2023 | WR |
| 100 m backstroke | 57.33 | 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup | Budapest | 21 October 2023 | =CR, =OC, former WR |
| 2024 Summer Olympics | Paris | 30 July 2024 | OR, =CR, =OC | ||
| 200 m backstroke | 2:03.14 | 2023 NSW State Open Championships | Sydney | 10 March 2023 | WR , ACR |
| 50 m breaststroke | 32.18 | Queensland Championships | Brisbane | 14 December 2020 | |
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:06.86 | Victorian Open Championships | Melbourne | 17 February 2023 | |
| 200 m breaststroke | 2:24.18 | 2023 Australian Championships | Gold Coast | 19 April 2023 | |
| 50 m butterfly | 27.28 | Swimming Queensland Prep Meet | Brisbane | 15 November 2020 | |
| 100 m butterfly | 59.45 | Southport Prep Meet | Gold Coast | 18 November 2023 | |
| 200 m individual medley | 2:06.63 | 2024 Australian Swimming Trials | Brisbane | 10 June 2024 | CR, OC, ACR |
| 400 m individual medley | 4:28.22 | 2024 Australian Championships | Gold Coast | 18 April 2024 | OC, ACR |
Short course metres (25 m pool)
- As of 14 December 2022
| Event | Time | Meet | Location | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 m freestyle | 1:55.84 | Australian Championships (25m) | Melbourne | 27 October 2018 | |
| 50 m backstroke | 26.00 | Australian Virtual Championships (25m) | Brisbane | 27 November 2020 | |
| 100 m backstroke | 55.49 | 2022 World Short Course Championships | Melbourne | 14 December 2022 | |
| 200 m backstroke | 1:58.94 | Australian Virtual Championships (25m) | Brisbane | 28 November 2020 | WR, OC, CR, NR |
| 100 m breaststroke | 1:08.06 | Australian Championships (25m) | Melbourne | 25 October 2018 | |
| 50 m butterfly | 27.46 | Australian Virtual Championships (25m) | Brisbane | 27 November 2020 | |
| 100 m individual medley | 59.14 | Australian Virtual Championships (25m) | Brisbane | 26 November 2020 | |
| 200 m individual medley | 2:03.57 | 2022 World Short Course Championships | Melbourne | 13 December 2022 | OC, CR, NR |
Records not set in finals: h – heat;
World records
Long course metres
| No. | Event | Time | Meet | Location | Date | Status | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 m backstroke | 57.45 | 2021 Australian Swimming Trials | Adelaide, Australia | 13 June 2021 | Former | |
| 2 | 200 m backstroke | 2:03.14 | 2023 NSW State Open Championships | Sydney, Australia | 10 March 2023 | Current | |
| 3 | 50 m backstroke | 26.86 | 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup | Budapest, Hungary | 20 October 2023 | Current | |
| 4 | 100 m backstroke (2) | 57.33 | 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup | Budapest, Hungary | 21 October 2023 | Former |
Short course metres
| No. | Event | Time | Meet | Location | Date | Status | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 200 m backstroke | 1:58.94 | Australian Swimming Championships (25m) | Brisbane, Australia | 28 November 2020 | Current |
Olympic records
Long course metres
| No. | Event | Time | Meet | Location | Date | Status | Notes | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 m backstroke | 57.88 | h | 2020 Summer Olympics | Tokyo, Japan | 25 July 2021 | Former | ||
| 2 | 100 m backstroke (2) | 57.47 | 2020 Summer Olympics | Tokyo, Japan | 27 July 2021 | Former | |||
| 3 | 4x100 m medley relay | 3:51.60 | 2020 Summer Olympics | Tokyo, Japan | 1 August 2021 | Current | CR, OC, NR | ||
| 4 | 100 m backstroke (3) | 57.33 | 2024 Summer Olympics | Paris, France | 20 July 2024 | Current | =CR, =OC, =NR |
Records not set in finals: h – heat;
split 58.01 for backstroke leg; with Chelsea Hodges (breaststroke), Emma McKeon (butterfly), Cate Campbell (freestyle)
Awards and honours
- In the 2022 Australia Day Honours McKeown was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
- In 2023, Australian Institute of Sport Performance Awards Female Able-Athlete of the Year
- 2023 World Aquatics Female Athlete of the Year
- 2023 Swimming World Female Swimmer of the Year
- 2020 and 2023 SwimSwam Female Swimmer of the Year
Personal life
In August 2020, McKeown's father, Sholto, died after a two-year battle with brain cancer. She has a tattoo on her foot in his memory that says, "I'll always be with you".
McKeown has been dating fellow Australian national team member and 2020 Olympian Brendon Smith since November 2021.