Kaylee McKeown and Cam McEvoy have both won gold medals in a thrilling 10 minutes in the pool at the Paris Olympics
McKeown becomes first Australian to win four individual goldsHistoric is an overused adjective. But on Friday night, a packed La Défense Arena witnessed something truly historic in the Paris Olympic swimming pool. Kaylee McKeown became the only Australian swimmer to ever defend not just one but two individual Olympic gold medals. On Tuesday night, it wasin an Olympic record time. Seventy-two hours later, McKeown did it again – defending her 200m backstroke gold medal from Tokyo.
But where to start with McKeown’s history? Four individual gold medals in three years across two Olympics makes her the. Dolphins teammate Emma McKeon has six golds, four from relays. Ian Thorpe and Mollie O’Callaghan both have five golds, but again relays have played their part. Friday’s triumph gave McKeown her fifth gold medal, the four individual victories and a medley relay win in Tokyo.
The momentousness does not stop there. Following Friday’s success, McKeown is level with legendary Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi on four Olympic backstroke gold medals. No other woman in Games history has more than two. Egerszegi is typically considered the greatest female backstroke swimmer of all time. McKeown now surely ranks alongside her. No swimmer, male or female, from any nation, has ever won the backstroke double and then defended it at the next Olympics.
McKeown’s win continued a golden run for the Dolphins on day seven of the swimming program, coming just minutes after McEvoy won gold. The 30-year-old veteran blazed away from the field in the final metres to touch first in a time of 21.25. The crowd went wild for Frenchman Florent Manaudou, who finished third, but the jubilation provided a fitting soundtrack for McEvoy’s win.
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