McKeon takes on six events at world titles in Budapest

Rio medallist Emma McKeon has never been so relaxed going into a major championship despite taking on six events.

Emma McKeon wins the 200m freestyle at the Australian championships in Brisbane in April.

Australia’s most decorated Rio Olympian, Emma McKeon, has never been so relaxed going into a major championship and she hopes that’s reflected in an even better performance at the world ­titles in Budapest.

McKeon won four medals on her Olympic debut — gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, silver in the 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays, and bronze in the 200m freestyle — and will take on an even bigger program in ­Budapest.

She will do six events, having added the 100m freestyle to her list in the absence of world record-holder Cate Campbell. She will be Australia’s busiest swimmer over the eight days, starting with the 100m butterfly preliminaries and women’s sprint relay on Sunday night.

But her main game is the 200m freestyle, where she shapes as the main challenger to the Olympic champion Katie Ledecky.

Rio silver medallist Sarah ­Sjostrom, of Sweden, has opted out of the event to focus on the sprints and McKeon believes she’s ready to step up after an extensive European racing program in the past month.

“I have done so much international racing and racing the top girls. I feel a lot more relaxed going into worlds because I have raced them … and that’s how I race my best,’’ she said.

“I get fitter and better with more racing and it gives me more confidence. I feel the most fit I have been and my training has been the most consistent it’s been.” That’s a vote in favour of head coach Jacco Verhaeren’s decision to include more international ­racing in the Australian team’s program this year, in response to the team’s general underperformance at the Rio Olympics.

In the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly, McKeon will take on what might be the most daunting challenge in swimming right now, racing the flying Sjostrom.

The Swede has lifted to a new level after winning her first ­Olympic gold medal in the 100m butterfly last year and has put ­together the most impressive ­racing season of any swimmer in the world this year.

She missed Campbell’s world 100m freestyle record (52.06sec) by just 0.02 sec in Canet last month and leads the butterfly rankings (55.76sec) by more than a second.

McKeon said she was inspired rather than daunted by the ­standard Sjostrom is setting.

“We saw her go pretty close to the world record at Mare Nostrum and that’s nice to see because it raises the level of everyone else,’’ McKeon said.

“It’s definitely pushing me ­because it raises my benchmark every time.’’

McKeon has experimented with the 200m butterfly this year, an event she won’t do in Budapest but might do at next year’s ­Commonwealth Games, and she believes that flirtation will also ­improve her performance in the shorter event. “Doing that 200m butterfly will help the back end of my race as well, so I’m excited to see how it will go.’’

In the 200m freestyle she plans to continue using her front-end speed in a bid to gain enough of a lead on Ledecky to negate her ­finishing speed.

“I do go out quite fast but I need to make it that tiny bit easier and get that second 100m a bit quicker,’’ she said. “It’s a very competitive group of girls and that gets everyone pushing hard and gets me pushing hard.’’

Without Campbell, Australia’s Olympic and world champion sprint relay is regarded as vulnerable in some quarters, particularly to the US quartet, which will ­include Olympic champion Simon Manuel.

But McKeon says the Australian relay, which still includes reigning world champion Bronte Campbell, world shortcourse champion Brittany Elmslie and herself, a Commonwealth Games medallist, will still be highly competitive. “We will definitely miss Cate this year but we have a good group of girls and there’s a lot of us under 54 seconds,’’ she said.

“I think we would definitely like to maintain how we have gone in the last few years.’’

The world swimming championships start in Budapest on Sunday night (AEST).