Emma McKeon raced into Olympic history in the Tokyo pool and her coach can trace it all back to a defining experience in Rio and a key decision in December. Olympics Tokyo2020
There are hundreds of hours and countless micro-moments that go into creating the kind of perfect storm Emma McKeon rained down on the Tokyo pool but Michael Bohl, her longtime coach, can trace the foundations back to a pair of forks in a road that eventually led to a rare slice of Olympic history.
The only other female Olympian, in any sport, to win seven medals in one Olympics was Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya in Helsinki in 1952. McKeon, such an assassin in the water but shy and reserved on dry land, was struggling to believe she was the one at the centre of a sporting fable that has seen her become Australia’s most successful Olympian .
“It’s really difficult [to back up for so many races]. She struggled in Rio, she didn’t do a good 100m fly on the second or third day. And I still remember the following morning she was crying during the warm-up, she had tears while she was warming up,” Bohl said. “The 200 for her, it had just been plateauing for a couple of years. We could see the 100 getting quicker, so we rolled the dice. We thought we’d give the 100 a little bit more attention and see what happens. She really embraced that and over the last couple years. It has dropped further and further and further.”
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