{"id":593195,"date":"2024-07-30T12:13:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T19:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=593195"},"modified":"2024-07-30T14:55:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T21:55:27","slug":"paris-olympics-day-4-finals-kaylee-mckeown-tops-regan-smith-to-repeat-as-100-backstroke-olympic-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-4-finals-kaylee-mckeown-tops-regan-smith-to-repeat-as-100-backstroke-olympic-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 4 Finals: Kaylee McKeown Tops Regan Smith to Repeat as 100 Backstroke Olympic Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 4 Finals: Kaylee McKeown Tops Regan Smith to Repeat as 100 Backstroke Olympic Champion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first time Kaylee McKeown<\/strong> and\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong> raced each other was at the 2017 World Championships, when Smith was 15 years old and McKeown had just turned 16. Neither won a medal that night (Smith actually fell to eighth), but that moment foreshadowed a long backstroking rivalry between the two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith was the first to break a world record, taking down marks in both the 200 back and 100 back at the 2019 Worlds, but McKeown was victorious in both events on the Olympic stage. At last year’s World Championships, the last time the two met prior to the Paris Games, McKeown got the gold in all three backstroke races, all at Smith’s expense.<\/p>\n

But the U.S. Olympic Trials last month saw Smith fire back, taking down McKeown’s 100 back world record in fiery fashion<\/a>. McKeown woke up on a Wednesday morning to learn about the record without an ounce of surprise.<\/p>\n

“One of my favorite sayings is, \u2018world records are meant to be broken,\u2019 and that\u2019s what I was expecting after our Trials,” McKeown said. “She\u2019s been in form all year. Having that, it\u2019s been an extra motivation for me in these Olympics, but it\u2019s never been something I\u2019ve put all my focus into.”<\/p>\n

In Paris, McKeown and Smith would surely meet in a pair of gold-medal finals, with the pair considered a virtual lock to occupy the top-two spots in some order. Round one come in the 100-meter race, and accordingly, Smith and McKeown would swim in the center lanes, the American in four and the Australian in five.<\/p>\n

And once again, McKeown has come from behind to overtake Smith at a critical juncture, securing her second consecutive Olympic gold in the event.<\/p>\n

The race was almost dead even through the halfway point, with Smith and Canada’s Kylie Masse<\/strong> each flipping at 28.02, just eight hundredths shy of world-record pace, but McKeown and the United States’\u00a0Katharine Berkoff<\/strong> were just hundredths behind. Off the turn, Smith’s underwater dolphin kicks propelled her ahead, but Berkoff was not done, and neither was McKeown.<\/p>\n

\"kaylee

Kaylee McKeown (right) with Australian teammate Iona Anderson — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini \/ Deepbluemedia \/ Insidefoto<\/p><\/div>\n

In previous major finals matching up the duo, Smith has taken the early lead, only for McKeown to come charging back, but when Smith broke the world record at last month’s Trials, she went out under world-record pace and then fell a mere one hundredth shy of equaling McKeown’s second-length split<\/a>. This time, McKeown stayed close enough to put herself in an ideal position.<\/p>\n

In the final 15 meters, the medals sorted themselves out: Berkoff fell slightly behind, and then so did Smith as McKeown reached to the wall in 57.33. That tied her best time, which had stood as the world record until last month and remains the Australian, Commonwealth and Oceanic records.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels surreal to be honest with you, and I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d be any good there tonight. I didn\u2019t put expectations on myself, I was going to get out and enjoy the atmosphere, and that\u2019s the best you can do for yourself,” McKeown said. “I knew it was going to come down to the last five meters. We\u2019re both extremely good athletes, and both extremely good trainers, so it\u2019s just who feels better on the day, and she pushed me the whole way through.”<\/p>\n