{"id":593563,"date":"2024-08-01T02:36:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T09:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=593563"},"modified":"2024-08-01T02:36:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T09:36:09","slug":"paris-olympics-day-6-prelims-kaylee-mckeown-cruises-to-third-seed-in-200-back-as-peng-xuwei-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-6-prelims-kaylee-mckeown-cruises-to-third-seed-in-200-back-as-peng-xuwei-leads\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 6 Prelims: Kaylee McKeown Cruises to Third Seed in 200 Back as Peng Xuwei Leads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 6 Prelims: Kaylee McKeown Cruises to Third Seed in 200 Back as Peng Xuwei Leads<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australia’s\u00a0Kaylee McKeown<\/strong> already came through in the 100 backstroke against world-record holder\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong> to defend the gold medal she won three years ago in Tokyo. McKeown will be favored to do the same in the 200-meter distance, an event in which she set the world record last year at 2:03.14.<\/p>\n

McKeown and American\u00a0rival\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong> sit more than one second ahead of the field entering the event, while only three other women brought in entry times under 2:07, allowing the favorites to cruise through the first round. McKeown showed some early speed in her heat, but she slowed and allowed American\u00a0Phoebe Bacon\u00a0<\/strong>to nearly catch her down the stretch. McKeown clocked 2:08.89, just ahead of Bacon’s 2:09.00, and those times ranked third and fourth, respectively, after prelims.<\/p>\n

Bacon finished fifth in the final three years ago in Tokyo, and she won silver at the 2022 World Championships, just four hundredths behind McKeown. After missing the U.S. World Championships team last year, Bacon responded at this year’s U.S. Olympic Trials to sneak onto the Olympic team in the event.<\/p>\n