Kaylee McKeown wins third World Swimming Championships gold medal in 200m backstroke

Kaylee McKeown, you’ve done it again. Australia’s queen of backstroke has completed one of the sport’s most elusive feats by claiming another gold medal at the World Championships.

FUKUOKA, JAPAN - JULY 27: Gold medallist Kaylee McKeown of Team Australia poses during the medal ceremony for the Women's 50m Backstroke Final on day five of the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships at Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall A on July 27, 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Australia’s Kaylee McKeown has won her third gold medal at the world championships in Fukuoka to become the first swimmer to complete the elusive backstroke treble.

McKeown had already won the 50m and 100m backstroke titles and completed the rare sweep with victory in the 200m race, her strongest event.

Her winning time of 2:03.85 was just outside the world record she set in Sydney earlier this year but she had to work hard for the victory.

American Regan Smith — who McKeown took the world record off — led the race through the first laps, before McKeown edged ahead on the last length and held on for the win.

Exhausted, she gave Smith a thumbs up n a sign of the mutual respect they share before climbing out of the water and being interviewed on the pool deck.

“Thanks for letting me catch my breath,” she said. “I’m dying.

“That means a lot to be able to do that tonight after such a long week.

“The best thing about our sport is you’ve got to swim your own race and that’s what I did. I thought I might have gone out a little bit hard but I got there and it was close to my PM (personal best).”

Kaylee McKeown enjoys her win in the 200m backstroke final. Picture: Sarah Stier/Getty Images.

WHY MCKEON WON’T COMPETE IN TOUGHEST SWIM

With the hard work done and a bagful of gold medals already in her possession, Kaylee McKeown will be able to take things a little easier on the last day of the world swimming championships on Sunday.

By her standards, her last dip in the pool will be a relatively easy one – swimming one of the legs of the Australian women’s medley relay – and will likely involve another trip to the podium.

But if her coach Michael Bohl had his way, McKeown would have a tougher last session – racing the 400m individual medley as well the relay.

The 400m medley is one of the most exhausting events in pool swimming – because it’s effectively a lung-bursting combination of four separate 100m sprints – in backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle – with no breaks in between.

Only the toughest swimmers in the world compete in but that’s exactly why Bohl wanted McKeown to enter – because he’s convinced she’s got what it takes.

His only problem is persuading McKeown, because she hates the race.

Kaylee McKeown won’t swim the 400m medley despite her coach’s wishes. Picture: Clive Rose/Getty Images

“You’ve got to force her to do the 400m. She’s not a real keen exponent,” Bohl said.

“But I think it could be a very good event for her, just the way she trains, her efficiency through her strokes.

“I think all the hallmarks are there for someone that could do a good 400m medley. But she just doesn't want to do it.”

McKeown has raced it before and shown enormous potential.

She swam it at last year’s Australian national championships and jumped to 12th-fastest in history, just two seconds off Stephanie Rice’s Australian record, which she set in winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But there was a catch, it left McKeown fatigued and impacted her performance in her backstroke races.

“She had a bad reaction to it last year,” Bohl said. “She swam a PB but she was cactus the next day.

“She just felt really drained and that's just put in her mind that she can’t back up and do it at a big meet and all that sort of stuff.”

Part of the reason Bohl wants to persevere with McKeown is because he sees similarities between her and Rice. And he should know, because he also coached Rice.

McKeown in the women's 200m heats. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Bohl has had a partial win. He has convinced McKeown to add the 200m individual medley to her backstroke program, hoping she would agree to add the longer race once she started seeing the rewards.

Things were going swimmingly when McKeown won a silver medal at last year’s world titles and went into the current championships in Japan as one of the gold medal favourites.

But like all the best-laid plans, they came unstuck when something unexpected happened, in this case, when McKeown was disqualified for a technical infringement in the semis.

Because the 400m medley was at the end of the program in Fukuoka, Bohl figured it was the perfect time to experiment because she had nothing to lose if anything went wrong.

But with the race scheduled for the start in Paris, he’s conceded there’s no chance she’ll take it up there and agrees that’s the right call.

“If you have an off 400m medley at the start, it could wreck your whole meet,” he said.

“You can get too greedy at the Olympics. Her number one races are the backstrokes, the 100m and 200m backstroke, but not necessarily in that order, and the 200m medley is an event we've been playing around with for the last 12 months which she’s getting better at.”