Swimming 2022: Emma McKeon and family celebrated for outstanding contribution to swimming

The outstanding contribution to swimming by Emma McKeon and her whole family has been recognised at the Swim Coaches and Teachers Australia Awards.

Of all the accolades awarded to Emma McKeon since her history-making efforts at the Tokyo Olympics last year, this might mean the most.

The McKeon clan, the first family of the pool, was formally recognised at the Swim Coaches and Teachers Australia Awards on the Gold Coast on Monday night, taking out the 2021 Outstanding Contribution to Swimming in Australia gong.

While the award typically recognises an outstanding contribution by an individual, the Swim coaches and Teachers Australia board departed from tradition in bestowing the accolade to the McKeon family.

On a night when McKeon’s coach Michael Bohl was recognised for his role in helping Emma become Australia’s greatest Olympian of all time, jointly winning the high performance coach of the year for both 2021 and 2022 with peers Dean Boxall, Vince Raleigh and Chris Mooney, the McKeon family was hailed for its contribution to the sport at all levels.

Dual Olympian and Olympic coach Ron, wife and McKeon Swim School operator Susie and their Olympian children Emma and David were recognised for their roles in promoting swimming in Australia.

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Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Contribution to Swimming In Australia Ron McKeon, Emma McKeon and David McKeon with Olympic legend Dawn Fraser. Photo Supplied

All four have represented Australia in the pool - dual Olympian Ron (Moscow and Los Angeles, swimmer pin 272), 1982 Commonwealth Games representative Susie (311) and dual Olympians David (721) and Emma (702).

While Emma continues to swim at the international level and is Australia’s most successful Olympian and Commonwealth Games athlete of all time, Ron, Susie and David have continued their success out of the water.

Ron has served as a coach on several Australian teams, while Susie is owner and manager of the biggest swim school in Wollongong and a long-serving contributor to the learn to swim industry and David has recently embarked on his own coaching career.

Meanwhile, Bohl shared spoils for the 2021 coach of the year with colleagues Boxall (Ariarne Titmus), Raleigh (Zac Stubblety-Cook) and Mooney (Kayleigh McKeown) who also led athletes to individual gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

He backed that award up with a joint win in the 2022 coach of the year with Boxall (Molly O’Callaghan and Elijah Winnington) and Raleigh (Stubblety-Cook) after leading McKeown to gold and silver at this year’s world championships.

David Proud was named multi class coach of the year for 2021 for guiding Paralympic gold medallist Will Martin, while Rob van der Zant and Kate Sparkes were joint winners of the 2022 gong for the achievements of world champions Rowan Crothers and Katja Dedekind.

Noosa veteran John Rodgers won open water coach of the year after his charge Kareena Lee won a history-making bronze medal in Tokyo, while West Australia’s Ian Mills, coach of emerging star Kye Lee, won the 2022 award.