Australian Swimming Trials: Kaylee McKeown's ‘dark place' admission after winning 200m backstroke

News.com.au

a day ago

Olympic star Kaylee McKeown swam a 2025 world-best 200m backstroke time with a stunning race at the Australian Swimming Trials in Adelaide.
The 23-year-old had previously been disappointed with her times at the trials but produced an explosive performance to finish with a 2:09.54 time.
McKeown was pleased with her performance
'I'm not going to be harsh on myself tonight, I am happy with that. It's a good step in the right direction,' she said.
'I've got to get myself settled now and really use this year to dig my heels in and see what I can do over the next couple years.'
McKeown took out the 100m backstroke title earlier in the trials but had not been content with her swim, a time of 57.71 seconds, just 0.58 seconds slower than the current world record.
The Paris gold medallist revealed she had been struggling to find motivation after experiencing a post-Olympics lull.
'If I look back on my preparation for this year I had four months off, I wasn't finding myself very happy,' she said.
'Coming off of the Olympics I was in a dark place mentally — I think when you're coming off of such a high and you go back to such a low you struggle to find ideas of what to do next.'
With the top 200m backstroke time in the world this year now under her belt, McKeown has now turned her focus to the World Championships in Singapore and the 2028 Olympics in LA.
'It doesn't matter what you do here, it matters what you do in an international meet so I just need to get my mind right and see what I can do in a few weeks.
'I want to go to my third Olympics, I want to be on American soil and show them what the Aussies have.'
Finishing second in the final and qualifying for her first Dolphins team, junior or senior, was St Peters Western swimmer Hannah Fredericks.
The Dean Boxall-coached 22-year-old was overcome with emotion after her swim, which resulted in a 2:09.54 time.
'I can't put into words how I feel,' she said.
'The time wasn't the best thing in the world but when I touched that wall I did not give a shit about the time, as long as I qualified.
'Last year I lost a lot of belief in myself, I was so close to making the team last year.
'I'm so grateful for my parents and for Dean … I can't put into words how much I idolise him.
'This means the world to me … to be competing alongside some of my best mates at the sport is amazing and I'm so stoked.'
LEARY ALMOST BREAKS HER OWN WORLD RECORD
Paralympic champion Alexa Leary again came close to breaking her own world record in the women's multi-class 100m freestyle final at the national swimming trials.
The 23-year-old gold medallist blitzed her way to a 59.54 second time, just 0.32 seconds slower than the world record she set in April.
The race adds to an already dominant trials performance by Leary, who also claimed the 50m final earlier this week.
'I was just off of it (the world record), I'm loving it,' Leary said of her result.
'I'm doing a lot of work with my coach Jon Bell, he's an amazing coach.
'My tanks are 100 percent going to be aiming for the world record (at the Singapore World Championships.'