Tokyo 2021: Emily Seebohm grabs 200m backstroke bronze in final race of great Olympic career

Beijing, London, Rio and now Tokyo. Emily Seebohm has done it all. But as rising star Kaylee McKeown helped her bring the curtain down on her Olympics career, she wanted just one thing.

Emily Seebohm’s eyes welled with tears as she soaked up one last history-making Olympic triumph.

The 29-year-old competing at her fourth and final Olympics in Tokyo, had just joined truly elite company by finishing third in the women’s 200m backstroke and becoming just the third Australian swimmer to medal at four Games.

And all that was missing was a hug from mum and dad.

Seebohm cried poolside when a Tokyo Games official approached her with tears in their eyes – and they didn’t stop flowing until well after her mighty performance.

Kaylee McKeown invited Emily Seebohm to the top of the Olympic dias.

“I was shocked at first. One of the volunteers was crying and that got me going,” Seebohm said.

“They are 100 per cent happy tears. (But) I wish my family were here right now. There’s nothing more than a hug from my parents that I’d want to top off this day.”

Seebohm deservedly had her moment in the spotlight during the medal ceremony when she was invited to the top of the Olympic dais by Australian teammate and gold medal winner Kaylee McKeown.

Seebohm presented McKeown with her gold medal, and the pair shared the top step as the Australian anthem echoed around the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

“Four Olympics, it’s not something many people get to do, for her to come to her last Olympics and get third on that podium, I thought why not bring her up to first where she also belongs?” McKeown said.

“Before we walked out she said it would mean a lot to me if I put the medal around your neck, I found that so sweet and that’s a real testament to who she is as a person.

Kaylee McKeown congratulates Emily Seebohm on her final Olympic swim.

“It was quite emotional. She had tears in her eyes and so did I, but it was pretty special.”

It was an incredible swim, with Seebohm sitting seventh back with 100m to go and still with

work to do, from fifth, for the final 50.

Seebohm has typically not been viewed as having the big finish at the end of the 200m, but on Saturday, with her final Olympic strokes, she found it.

The third-place finish puts Seebohm alongside Cate Campbell and Leisel Jones as having won medals across four Olympics.

The overwhelming nod to history was enough for Seebohm to well up again.

Emily Seebohm joined an elite group of Aussie Olympians.

“It’s pretty unbelievable. I didn’t think that I would get this again,” Seebohm said.

“I’m so grateful, it is so hard getting on this team every year. And it’s something I hold so close to my heart because these teams are the time of my life. So get back on (this team), to make four Olympics and to medal at every Olympics I’ve been to … honestly as a little girl, I wouldn’t have thought that.

“All I thought of was I wanted to go to an Olympics.

“Medals weren’t really an option until they all kind of happened, I’ve been incredibly lucky and very blessed with the team around me.”

Originally published as Tokyo 2021: Emily Seebohm grabs 200m backstroke bronze in final race of great Olympic career