{"id":519430,"date":"2022-12-18T13:40:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=519430"},"modified":"2022-12-18T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T20:40:10","slug":"rare-morning-medal-swim-perfect-payoff-for-patient-kensey-mcmahon-at-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/rare-morning-medal-swim-perfect-payoff-for-patient-kensey-mcmahon-at-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Morning Medal Swim Perfect Payoff for Patient Kensey McMahon at Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rare Morning Medal Swim Perfect Payoff for Patient Kensey McMahon at Worlds<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kensey McMahon<\/strong> had waited until age 23 to make her international debut for the U.S. senior team in the pool. So waiting a few hours, from prelims to finals Friday at the FINA World Short-Course Championships, to see if her time in the 1,500 freestyle would hold up for a medal may not have seemed all that long.<\/p>\n

Like it has in her career at large, the patience paid off for McMahon, who leapt up to grab a most unlikely medal. Her time in the morning of 15:49.15 in the morning bested all but two of the eight swimmers in the fastest heat in the night session, meaning the graduate student is headed back to the University of Alabama with a piece of hardware.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave everything I had in the morning,\u201d McMahon said. \u201cTeam USA support is incredible. And so I knew at the end of the day, whatever happened was going to happen. But definitely very happy with the results and very thankful for my support system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kensey

Kensey McMahon; Photo Courtesy: Austin Bigoney \/ Alabama Athletics<\/p><\/div>\n

It caps a sensational ride for the 23-year-old. She was a little surprised to see the invite to be part of Team USA in the fall<\/a>, despite having been a part of U.S. national teams, junior and senior, since her mid-teens and having represented the U.S. for the full open-water national team. She\u2019s flourished in Tuscaloosa, but breaking into the distance fold for the United States is no easy task. It made getting there this year even sweeter for the Bolles School Sharks alum. A finalist at Olympic Trials in the 1,500 in 2021, she\u2019s continued to get faster well into her 20s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a process,\u201d McMahon, a former Swimming World<\/em> intern, said in October. \u201cMy whole swimming career has been a lot about patience and trusting the hard work that I\u2019m putting in but knowing that the hard work does pay off, but it just takes some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, only 18 women contested the 1,500 free. McMahon who entered with a seed time of 16:16.22, didn\u2019t make the cut for the final heat, seeded 10th. That left her in the seven-person second heat of two in the morning session, knowing she\u2019d need to post a good time, then wait and hope.<\/p>\n

She did the first part with aplomb, taking a wrecking ball to her seed time to go 15:49.15, a cut of nearly 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

That gave her a shot at the podium, but she wouldn\u2019t know for hours. Though she approached it with the idea that having already ticked off her primary bucket-list item of the week \u2013 hugging a koala \u2013 \u201ceverything else is just bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n