Tokyo Olympics: For swimmers, actions louder than words

Emma McKeon spent most of the Tokyo Olympics climbing on to podiums. On Tuesday, she walked down a set of stairs at Sydney Airport and started life without quarantine.

Olympians Kaylee McKeown, with dog Ottis, and Ariarne Titmus return home at Brisbane Airport on Tuesday. Picture: Brad Fleet

Emma

Emma McKeon spent most of the Tokyo Olympics climbing on to podiums. On Tuesday, she walked down a set of stairs at Sydney Airport and started life without quarantine. It must have felt nearly as good.

McKeon had a suitcase in her left hand, a water bottle in her right. A handbag was slung over a shoulder. She could have hammed it up by wearing the seven medals she won in Tokyo but she’d be the last person to draw attention to herself.

A mask was covering most of her face, and the notoriously shy swimmer probably hoped it completely hid her identity. No chance.

McKeon became Australia’s most successful Olympian in Tokyo where she won four gold medals and three bronze. Plenty of things in her life changed in Tokyo. One of them? Anonymity.

The Q and A was quick.

Happy to be home?

Gold medal-winning swimmer Emma McKeon arrives in Sydney after completing two weeks’ quarantine at Howard Springs. Picture: David Swift

“Yeah, very happy,” she said rather sheepishly.

“It’s a very good feeling.”

What are you looking forward to? “I’m just excited to get back to Wollongong. Give my family a big hug and hopefully have a home-cooked meal.”

How have you been celebrating your Olympics?

“Not really celebrating that much,” she said. “A lot of sleep, ­really.”

Any plans?

“Not really any plans – since we’re going into lockdown.”

McKeon’s coach, Michael Bohl, said McKeon was “embarrassed” by her new-found fame. That rang true when she looked sideways at reporters at Sydney Airport as if to say, you want to talk to me? She is no teenage phenomenon, no guaranteed world-­beater. Success has come late for the 27-year-old, and it’s taken even her by surprise.

“She’s a very unique individual, Emma, very modest and very quiet,” Bohl said. “It’s very unusual. She’s probably in the Susie O’Neill kind of mould. She’s one of these people that gets a little bit embarrassed with the notoriety she receives. She’s very humble.”

More than 100 members of Australia’s Olympic team members returned to their homes on Tuesday after finishing two weeks of quarantine at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory.

McKeon’s teammates Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown, also stars of the Games, were among a large throng landing in Brisbane.

Titmus’s family was waiting with a bouquet of flowers. They were waiting longer than expected after the flight was delayed.

Other Australian team members arrived in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth to end a fortnight of waiting that started when their direct charter flight from Tokyo ­arrived at Darwin on August 2.

McKeon quietly slipped away to hit the road for Wollongong. Lockdown leaves a lot of to be desired but it laps quarantine for hardship.