Tokyo 2021 Olympics: Emma McKeon wins women’s 100m freestyle gold, Cate Campbell bronze

Five years ago, Emma McKeon made a vow at the Rio Olympics she would not be satisfied with a minor medal again. That vow was kept in Tokyo today.

Emma McKeon smiles under her mask after receiving her gold medal. Picture: Adam Head

She is the quiet Australian. The tall no-fuss, get-it-done swimmer who took on the world’s fastest and won a Tokyo Olympic gold medal.

“I can’t believe I just won,” Emma McKeon beamed, moments after her brilliant victory.

“I think it will take a while to sink in. I knew I had been working hard.”

McKeon was thrilled, obviously, to have the monkey off her back because before Friday’s race, she had enjoyed podium places, but standing atop the dais at Olympic and world championships was always with three others as part of a relay team.

At the Rio Olympics five years ago, where she won the bronze medal in the 200m freestyle, and gold in the 4x100m relay, McKeon vowed to her family she was not going to be satisfied with a minor medal again.

Emma McKeon in action in Tokyo. Picture: Getty Images

But this week at her third Olympics, the same pattern began emerging: McKeon was third in her individual event, the 100m butterfly, as well as the 4x200m freestyle relay, and after helping Australia win gold in world-record time in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Statisticians were getting excited about McKeon’s Olympic medal tally, of any colour, edging closer to Dawn Fraser’s eight Olympic medals, of which one of her last was at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in the same event.

The tally for Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones is nine each.

But McKeon wanted that solo triumph.

From the moment she walked on to the pool deck, focused intently on her starting block and ignoring the cheers of the Australian team in the stands, McKeon had only one thought: that all her training with coach Michael Bohl specifically tailored for the 100m distance would pay off.

Emma McKeon smiles under her mask after receiving her gold medal. Picture: Adam Head

And from the starting whistle she smoothly edged ahead, her elegant stroke making it all look effortless.

When McKeon turned to look at the scoreboard to check what her instincts had been screaming, something like ‘Yes, I’ve done it’, she didn’t even look at the time, 51.96sec, only the second woman to swim under 52sec in the event.

This was just pure racing, and the other medallists, Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey and Australian colleague Cate Campbell, were a half stroke away. McKeon turned to Campbell in the lane beside her and they hugged. Campbell even had tears of relief for herself to have picked up a bronze and joy for McKeon.

“I’m so proud of you,” Campbell said as they embraced in the pool.

Emma McKeon celebrates her win with Cate Campbell. Picture: Adam Head

None of that matched the frenzy of a Zoom call of 30 relatives tuning into the Wollongong home of McKeon’s parents Ron McKeon and Susie Woodhouse, both Commonwealth Games swimmers who run a swim school in the Illawarra that has helped keep several generations of young kids safe around water.

The McKeon and Woodhouse families are loyal and while coronavirus restrictions prevented a big family reunion in Wollongong for the race, the unusual virtual meeting worked a treat.

McKeon’s brother David, a London and Rio Olympian, was in the unusual situation of having to watch his sister race like the rest of the family, at home, rather than being preoccupied with his own competition.

McKeon’s mother Susie, a former Australian representative at the Commonwealth Games said at her home in Wollongong: “David, he’s never actually been on this side of the fence. He’s always actually been in the pool himself. He was feeling quite sick this morning, pacing up and down the backyard.”

Australia's Emma McKeon (R) celebrates with Cate Campbell.

McKeon’s father Ron is a four-time Commonwealth champion and Moscow and Los Angeles Olympian. It was his early work which honed McKeon’s stroke into the powerhouse it is now.

But Michael Bohl, whom she credited for her Olympic gold, has been Emma’s long-term coach.

At the Tokyo Olympic pool was Susie’s brother, Rob Woodhouse, the Olympic medley champion who now lives in Scotland.

Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell show off their medals.

Susie McKeon said her daughter was the only one in their household to have won an Olympic gold medal.

“She has a beautiful soul. She is very reserved, which most people probably wouldn’t realise,” Susie said.

“She goes about her business. She amazes us. She is extraordinary.’’

McKeon was nearly lost to the sport as a teenager, taking months off to reconsider if she really wanted to be an elite athlete. But now at 27, she can proudly call herself an Olympic champion.