Emma McKeon claims bronze in super heat won by American star Katie Ledecky
EMMA McKeon has pulled out a stunning 200m freestyle performance with an incredibly brave swim to claim a deserved bronze medal at the Rio Olympic Games.
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EMMA McKeon has pulled out a stunning 200m freestyle performance with an incredibly brave swim to claim a deserved bronze medal at the Rio Olympic Games.
Just 48 hours after she shed tears of disappointment over her 100m butterfly final, McKeon bounced back with an outstanding swim against two of the biggest names in the sport to finish third.
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McKeon led US superstar Katie Ledecky and Sweden’s butterfly world record holder Sarah Sjostrom through the first 100m but just could not quite hold on over the final two laps to claim the gold.
Ledecky surged to the victory, her second gold medal of the week, in a time of 1:53.73 with Sjostrom (1:54.08) taking silver and McKeon (1:54.92) holding on for grim death to the bronze.
McKeon was on the verge of tears of joy afterwards having thrown everything into her favourite race.
“I can’t really put into words, I’m just happy and so relieved,” McKeon said.
“I’m relieved it’s over because I did put a lot of pressure on myself in the 200m freestyle because I feel like that is where my potential is but yeah I just feel so happy I got a bronze medal.”
Her father Ron swam at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics and also won four Commonwealth Games gold medals, her mother Susie also is a Commonwealth Games swimmer and Susie’s brother, Rob Woodhouse, was a bronze medallist at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and also raced at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Australian Bronte Barratt finished equal fifth.
Originally published as Emma McKeon claims bronze in super heat won by American star Katie Ledecky
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