Emma McKeon’s race against youth for fairytale Paris Olympics finish

Turning 30 next month and confirming her retirement after the Olympics, Emma McKeon is managing her ageing body for the final farewell.

About to turn 30, Emma McKeon is building for one final Olympic campaign in Paris. Picture: Patrick HAMILTON / AFP

Australia’s most successful Olympian Emma McKeon admits her ageing body is the greatest challenge standing between her and ultimate immortality of defending her Olympic gold medals at her last Games in Paris.

McKeon turns 30 next month, which is hardly an age to be breaking out the walking stick but when you are an elite athlete training at the level required to be the fastest swimmer in the world every sinew of your body must operate in perfect unison.

And, as McKeon has learnt in recent years, her body is not what it used to be.

That’s not an excuse. It’s a reality that the biggest difference between a teenager or young 20-something athlete and one approaching the big 3-0 is how quickly the body recovers between sessions.

She has confirmed Paris will be her last Olympics and she’s timed her run, knowing she had one last all-or-nothing push to add to her legacy of 11 Olympic medals.

Mentally and physically McKeon is punching out sessions as good as, if not better, than prior to the Tokyo Olympic Games where she rocked the world of swimming winning four gold and three bronze medals including victory in both the 50m and 100m freestyle events.

So when McKeon turned up to the Australian Open swimming championships on the Gold Coast this week she was expecting the clock to be a reflection of everything she’d been working so hard towards under coach Michael Bohl.

What she got, was third place in the 100m freestyle in 53.09s and a further realisation that as an “older” athlete perhaps her performances during hard work are not as sharp as they used to be when she was younger.

The star of the Tokyo Olympics with four gold medals, McKeon will say goodbye after Paris. Picture: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

It also explains why, just two days later, she cranked out a personal best time in the 50m butterfly as she was a few days more rested than the start of the meet in an indication her body responds to rest and the mountain of work in training will pay off.

“My training has been going well, I’m really happy with it,” she said.

“It’s probably been the best it’s been since Tokyo so I’m really happy with how that is going.

“The racing kind of has not shown what I thought it would this meet.

“But I’m 30 in a month, so it’s like I’ve got to get used to everything is changing and I have to be happy that my training is holding up to the level that it was in Tokyo and I think I’ve just got to rest my body to race fast.

“The confidence is still there but I’ve kind of got to keep positive when you’ve got these young ones coming through.”

McKeon said the biggest change she’s had to make is how she recovers over the weekend.

Previously she could socialise, spend hours at the beach or live a normal life during her down time. Now, she and partner Cody Simpson relax at home to give their bodies a chance to be ready for the next challenge Bohl throws at them on Monday morning.

“Recovery has definitely been a huge thing for me,” she said.

“Like my weekends I’m not really doing anything. I will be at home on the couch just resting for the next week. The same in between sessions.

“Training with 20 year olds, they definitely push me. I’m looking at them and remembering what I was like when I was 20 as well.

“I need to keep that in mind that I am a bit older than them and not comparing myself to them every day.”

McKeon is hoping to hold off her younger rivals at the Olympic trials in June. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

McKeon’s next challenge is the Olympic trials in Brisbane from June 10.

There she will meet the hottest 100m freestyle final perhaps in history, as six of the 12 fastest women in history battle for two individual starting spots in Paris.

Mollie O’Callaghan (53.08s) is the reigning world champion, Cate Campbell (52.03s) and Bronte Campbell (52.27s) are both former world champions, Shayna Jack (52.28s) is the 10th fastest woman in history and Meg Harris (52.59s) recently jumped into contention with a stunning swim last Wednesday that put her higher profile rivals on notice.

McKeon still holds the fastest personal best time of 51.96s, but it’s whether she can reach those same lofty heights she did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 that remains the question.

“Yeah it is crazy (how fast everyone is swimming). It’s the same across the world really,” McKeon said.

“Come trials it’s going to be exciting and it’s definitely kept me pushing really hard in training.”

Originally published as Emma McKeon’s race against youth for fairytale Paris Olympics finish