Tokyo Olympics 2021: Emma McKeon could enter history books if medals keep flowing on Sunday

Everybody knows Emma McKeon has had an amazing Olympics. But just how good will become clearer on Sunday when she chases something US superstar Caeleb Dressel describes as ‘incredible’.

Australia's Emma McKeon reacts after competing in a heat for the women's 50m freestyle

One of the stars of the Australian swim team, Emma McKeon, has already ascended to the highest peak of Olympic achievement.

She’s now in rarefied air, standing alongside Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones as one of our greatest Olympians.

Ranked below her on the all-time medal chart, are some of the greatest legends of Australian sport: Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland, and her own teammate, Cate Campbell.

She’s already surpassed all of them. But on Sunday, McKeon can climb to the summit alone, becoming our country’s greatest Olympian. All she needs is one more medal in Tokyo, and she has two races on the final day of swimming to do it: 50m freestyle and the 4x100m medley relay.

Emma McKeon is look,ing to make history in her last two events on Sunday.

No-one is taking anything for granted, but the odds are in her favour because she is the red-hot pick to win the individual event, while Australia and the United States are close enough to joint favourites in the relay.

No Australian has ever won more than five medals at a single Olympic Games but McKeon already has five in Tokyo, more than any other athlete from any sport.

Just one more will give her that outright record, but there’s more.

She also just needs just one more to break free from Thorpe and Jones to become the first Australian to win 10 Olympic medals in a career after she collected four in Rio in 2016.

If she wins medals in both her races - which is highly possible - that will elevate her to another stratosphere that is so elite that few people even dream about scaling those heights, let alone actually doing it.

It’s common knowledge that Michael Phelps - who won eight medals, all gold, at the 2008 Beijing Games - is the most successful male Olympian of all time.

McKeon won bronze as part of the Aussie mixedd relay team.

What is less known is that the record for the most medals won by a female athlete at a single Olympics is seven, by the Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya, who did it in 1952.

To put McKeon’s quest into perspective, consider this.

Caeleb Dressel, who is currently the best male swimmer in the world, came to Tokyo chasing six medals, but has already struck out in one event.

He won gold in his first three events but came unstuck on Saturday when the United States finished fifth in the mixed medley relay, the only race where male and female swimmers go up against each other.

As fate would have it, he went up against McKeon in the concluding freestyle leg. The Australian dived in with a big head start and despite trying his best to claw her back, even Dressel couldn’t catch her and admitted to being blown away by her accomplishments.

“Wow,” he said. “She’s on track for seven? That’s incredible.”

Can McKeon add the 50m freestyle to her 100m freestyle crown?

No one has been more impressed by McKeon’s historic achievements than her own teammates.

Kaylee McKeown, a starlet in her own right who won the 200m backstroke gold on Saturday after winning the 100m gold earlier in the week, even got to share the podium with McKeon after swimming the lead off in the mixed medley relay.

On Sunday, they will team up again in the women’s medley, which could be the race for the record and McKeown wants to be part of it.

“To see Emma do what she does, it’s utterly incredible,” McKeown said.

Modern day immortal: McKeon joins elite Olympics club

Emma McKeon has broken her own Olympic record in the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle in Tokyo.

In unstoppable form, the Wollongong wizard won her semi in 24.00 seconds to go through to Sunday’s final as the fastest qualifier and chasing a third gold medal after winning the individual 100m freestyle and the relay

Australia’s Cate Campbell qualified sixth in 24.27 while Denmark’s Pernille Blume, the defending Olympic champion, was second quickest in 24.08.

Australia's Emma McKeon reacts after competing in a heat for the women's 50m freestyle

Immediately after the semi-final, McKeon was straight back in the water to play her part in the inaugural mixed medley relay.

She was up against Calaeb Dressel of the USA as the team’s anchor and stormed through to claim bronze - her ninth Olympic medal and one which puts he equal with Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones.

“I knew I could handle it and the fact that it’s a relay that gets you up anyway,” McKeon said when asked about backing up from one swim to another.

“A mixed relay you don’t know where you’re sitting. I knew the girl on the other side of me from the Netherlands, she was going last in freestyle so I knew I could kind of go off her rather than focusing on Dressel coming up behind me.”

When told about the record she had equalled, McKeon added: “That’s a pretty cool group to be part of. I don’t look at those stats I only hear it from you but I’m honoured to be up there with them.”

Emma McKeon will go for another gold in the 50m free final

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