Good and proper cry key to golden girl Emma McKeon dealing with career emotions

Emma McKeon has revealed the importance of a good and proper cry to deal with the abundance of emotions surrounding her ­record-breaking career.

Cody Simpson photographs his superstar swimmer girlfriend Emma McKeon with her impressive medal haul by the pool in Birmingham. Picture: Will Swanton

Emma McKeon has revealed the importance of a good and proper cry to deal with the abundance of emotions surrounding her ­record-breaking career. And she says winning a mountain of medals isn’t as important to her as how she wins them.

“That’s helped me,” she says of shedding private tears while completing a gruelling Commonwealth Games program com­pounded by a spotlight on her personal life. “It was obviously a pretty tough week … there were so many amazing parts of the week but yes, there were tough parts as well. I’ll say it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions.”

She adds: “You try to stay ­stable through the course of a week as big as this one but the emotions can build up and I do let them out. You can’t try to be a robot. I’m not a robot.

“You try to keep yourself together as much as you can but, yeah, there are times when I just let it all go and have a decent cry.”

McKeon won six gold medals, a silver and a bronze to become the most successful Commonwealth athlete in history. “Everyone sees me when I’m behind the blocks or when I’m doing my interview or at the pool,” she says. “They see me when I’m switched on and ready to race. It’s only when I get back to my room, or in the warm-down pool, or something like that, when I’ll allow myself to have my emotions.

“When I’m out here competing and being watched – like, I can’t be crying in the pool. That’d be embarrassing for everyone.”

Australia's Emma McKeon competes at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Picture: AFP

In an exclusive interview, McKeon speaks softly, smiles often, gets a thousand-yard stare when pausing to contemplate her answers. She’s a quietly tough cookie and a classic introvert.

She’s about to go on holidays to Italy with her high-profile boyfriend, Cody Simpson. A private person has become a public figure.

“I’m not shying away from that,” she says. “It takes some getting used to but I think I’m good at separating my achievements from who I am as a person.

“The good results are everything I have worked for, and so they are important to me. But it doesn’t make me who I am. Or it doesn’t make me a happier person or a better human.

“What I’ve done here, or the times I’ve swum or the medals I’ve received, I don’t think they’re the kinds of things I will remember later in life. I don’t even think they’re something anyone really gets remembered for.

“It’s who you are as a person and the impact you might have on other people … the way you do things, the way you handle yourself in victory and defeat … and in difficult situations.”

The perfectionist in her makes it difficult to celebrate.

Asked if she wants to let her hair down in celebration, she laughs: “Not ­really. I hoped I’d be a bit better at that by now, but I’m actually not … when I get to the end of a week like this one, all I ­really want to do is go and lie on a beach somewhere.”