Latest news with #EmmaMcKeon
ABC News
a day ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Australian Swimming Trials for World Aquatics Championships begin in Adelaide
Coming off an outstanding Olympic performance when the Dolphins won a collective seven golds, nine silvers and three bronze medals, next month's World Aquatic Championships present the next chance for the team to take on the might of the United States and maintain Australia's place as one of the world's leading swimming nations. However, the Dolphins will be without some big names even before the Australian Swimming Trials begin in Adelaide on Monday. Dual Paris gold medallist and 400m freestyle world record holder Ariarne Titmus is taking the year off swimming. Emma McKeon, Australia's most successful Olympian, has retired. Cate Campbell is long gone, while her sister Bronte is yet to decide on her future but will not be swimming in Adelaide. There have been other retirements, including Tokyo and Paris gold medallist Brianna Throssell, world championship gold medal-winning breaststroker Matt Wilson, and breaststrokers Chelsea Hodges and Jenna Strauch. With injuries to rising star Iona Anderson (backstroke) and the recent national 50m and 100m breaststroke champion Sam Williamson, the Dolphins team that goes to the World Championships in many ways will represent a changing of the guard. Head coach Rohan Taylor said he is as interested as anyone to see how his squad will shape up. "There's a number of athletes who have taken a good extended break after Paris and just want to get back on and see where they're at," he said. "I think they'll learn a lot about themselves. "There's a lot of openings for some of the young swimmers that will jump into those events, and we'll get some new blood on to the team and that'll be their first international experience. "For me, I just want to sit back and see where we're at after Worlds, and what we need to do to keep moving forwards. "I think we've got a really core group of athletes who are experienced and who will carry us through to LA." Taylor said his coaches are going to do everything they can to support the established stars who have committed to swimming at the 2028 LA Olympics. "Our main goal is that the performances at trials are repeated or improved on at the World Championships," Taylor said. "So, we want to see athletes qualify for the team and when they compete again in six weeks, they're swimming as fast or faster. We want that repeat-ability," he said. With Australia going through a golden era in swimming, Taylor believes the Australian public will be keenly watching the events in Adelaide over the next week and then the World Championships. "I think this group of athletes and coaches have really earned the right to have attention and focus on them," he said. Despite several accomplished stars not competing this week, there is still plenty of star power in Adelaide. Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O'Callaghan and Cam McEvoy all showed they were a class above their peers in their respective events at April's National Championships, despite being in the middle of solid training blocks. O'Callaghan was peerless taking out the 100m-200m double at the National Championships. McEvoy's 21.48 at the National Championships was the third fastest time in the world this year, which he credited to work on his starts and points to a potentially faster time in Adelaide this week. Kyle Chalmers, gold medallist in the 100m freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics, swam the second-fastest time in the world this year for the 100m freestyle in Norway and a personal best in the 50m freestyle at a meet in Sweden in April. "There's a lot that I still want to achieve and have success over the next few years and to be able to go to a fourth Olympics in LA would be amazing," Chalmers said. "My fiancée is going to make a comeback to swimming as well, and our goal is to be able to go to that Olympics together and have our daughter in the stands watching us, which I think is, yeah, going to be pretty special if we're able to do that." The star of the Paris Paralympics, dual gold-medallist Alexa Leary, said she could not wait for the trials to begin. "I just know it's show time. I just love it," she said. "Here's just you know, a bit of a warm-up. I'm still going to give it to them in the water, but I've just got to make it a little bit of a warm-up, big show-time in Singapore." Other names to watch out for include the men's distance swimmers Elijah Winnington, Samuel Short, and rising 1500m swimmer Benjamin Goedemans. Victorian Tara Kinder and Queenslander Ella Ramsay, both 20, enjoyed breakout performances at the National Championships. Kinder claimed the 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley, while Ramsay won the 100m backstroke and 400m individual medley.
Daily Mail
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Cody Simpson and Olympian girlfriend Emma McKeon look loved up as they reunite in Los Angeles - after discussing marriage plans
Cody Simpson and Emma McKeon recently spent a little time on separate continents. The Australian singer and the Olympic swimmer stepped out in Los Angeles this weekend and looked loved up and relaxed. In January, Cody stayed behind in LA, where he's based, while McKeon attended the Australian Open but the pair have since resumed spending time together. The 28-year-old pop star turned swimmer dressed casually in a graphic shirt and a pair of wide fit dark blue jeans. Emma, 30, also kept things dressed down in a black Prince Neptune hoodie and a pair of shirt shorts. Both had sunglasses on, with Emma choosing a fun heart shaped pair, and both wore sneakers. McKeon and Simpson, a pop star turned competitive swimmer, first met in the Australian swimming circuit. Their relationship reportedly began blossoming during training camps and competitions as part of the national team. The pair went public in July 2022, with Cody praising Emma's influence on his transition to professional swimming. Both have supported each other at major events, including the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where Emma achieved record-breaking success. They've also been spotted enjoying downtime together, from beach outings to attending social events and loved-up dates in romantic locations around the world. Simpson recently spoke about marriage potentially being on the cards. 'We have something that is beautiful and honest and pure,' Simpson said, adding that marriage was possible down the line. 'When something means enough to you and family does and will mean that much to me, it will always be a part of the picture,' he added. The 28-year-old pop star turned swimmer dressed casually in a graphic shirt and a pair of wide fit dark blue jeans. Emma, 30, also kept things dressed down in a black Prince Neptune hoodie Simpson moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to record music with Atlantic Records, cutting albums at Village Studios in West Los Angeles and performing at the Malibu Guitar Festival and The Troubadour in recent years. He put his music career on hold to try and earn a place at the Paris Olympics with the Australian swimming team, but was ultimately unsuccessful and has returned to performing. 'All you can do is everything you can to take what you've been given as far as you can take it,' he wrote at the time. 'You owe yourself the honour of cultivating your talents with as much fervour and intensity as you can. 'The privilege of becoming what you're capable of becoming. 'I left nothing to the unknown these past 4 years and I can now rest knowing I put my pedal to the floor every day and covered every other little detail to take this as far it could go and it sure went a hell of a ways.'
News.com.au
23-04-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Photos of legendary swimming coach Michael Bohl with Chinese swimmers rocks Australian swim team
The Australian swim team has been rocked as photos of iconic swim coach Michael Bohl with several Chinese athletes who secretly escaped punishment after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug emerging. Dressed in a Chinese team shirt and with a big smile, Bohl took happy snaps with swimmers Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei. The pictures rub salt in the wounds of the Dolphins, who were blindsided by the legendary coach's decision to defect to China to help them try to beat the Aussies at the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics. Bohl, who oversaw Olympic superstars such as Emma McKeon and Kaylee McKeown, is now currently coaching 13 Chinese swimmers, including four who competed at the Paris Olympics, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. And instead of being poolside for this week's Australian championships – where he spent decades finetuning Australia's best in the pool – he is instead overseeing more than a dozen of China's top swimmers, at least two of which are in the group of 23 competitors who tested positive to trimetazidine (TMZ). TMZ is the same prohibited drug that controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang was previously banned for. However, Chinese anti-doping authorities (CHINADA) acquitted all 23 swimmers after ruling that the positive samples were caused by contaminated food prepared in a hotel kitchen. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has controversially backed China's ruling without appealing, sparking serious complaints of bias from various past and present swimmers, many of whom Aussies who feel they were not only robbed of medals but that justice has not been served. It comes as an investigation by CODE Sports found that 25 Australian swimmers including Emma McKeon, Kyle Chalmers, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O'Callaghan and Zac Stubblety-Cook – were all beaten by rivals from China who had tested positive for the banned heart drug during the three-year cycle from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to the 2024 Paris Games. The lack of punishment for those Chinese athletes has led to former Australian swimmer Mack Horton, who famously refused to share the podium with Yang due to his questionable doping history, calling out the lack of consistency in his sport. 'We ask questions and push focus to the nth degree on our own shores,' Horton said. 'I don't know if we draw the line at our border or our nation or if we need to take on more ownership globally, I actually don't have the answer. 'But if we all want this to work better, and we want a better world, which is kind of a big statement, it starts with us and us being better at expecting high standards of others as well.' Olympic gold medallist in the 200m breaststroke Zac Stubblety-Cook also echoed Horton's concerns. The 26-year-old pointed to the lack of transparency in the Chinese swimmers' case, saying it was totally unfair that some athletes had been robbed of Olympic glory. 'It's frustrating to know that medals, moments, and recognition may have been taken away from clean athletes, and yet here we are a year later with little clarity and no real resolution,' he said. 'As athletes, we're taught that clean sport is non-negotiable, but this situation undermines that principle. It's frustrating to know that medals, moments, and recognition may have been taken away from clean athletes, and yet here we are a year later with little clarity and no real resolution.'
ABC News
22-04-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Meg Harris maturing into leadership role after claiming 50m freestyle victory at Australian Open Swimming Championships
The conclusion of an Olympic swimming cycle always has the potential to be turbulent. It's after that four-year slog where veterans opt to move on, hanging up their goggles and venturing into a life not constrained by the long black line at the bottom of the local pool. Post-Paris, that's exactly what has happened with the Australian swimming team, with Emma McKeon, Cate Campbell, Maddi Wilson and Brianna Throssell all among the women's stars to have stepped away from the sport. But the more things change, the more things stay the same, and with such a conveyor belt of talent coming through, the talent drain has been limited. Both Emma McKeon and Brianna Throssell have retired from competitive swimming. ( Getty Images: Dean Mouhtaropoulos ) Yet with so many experienced swimmers retiring, there is a leadership gap at the top. It's one that two-time Olympian Meg Harris is only happy to step into. "Yeah, definitely," 23-year-old Harris said when asked if she saw herself in that role within the Dolphins set up. "I've watched so many people … my best friend [Maddi Wilson] was one of the leaders past, so I got to see like how everyone looked up to her. Photo shows A stylised graphic with three silhouettes of unidentified a female footballer, tennis player, basketballer ABC Sport and Deakin University have partnered to produce the first ABC Elite Athletes in Australian Women's Sport Survey. "And that's one of the things that I want to get out of this team, is for people to see me as a role model and someone that they can, not necessarily be like in the water, but as a person." Harris might not be the most high-profile Dolphins squad member, but her subtle, calming and mature demeanour is obvious from a distance, just in the way she reacts with her teammates and handles herself in interviews. And it's hard to argue she doesn't have the credentials. A two-time Olympic 4x100m relay champion and 50m freestyle silver medallist from the Paris Games, Meg Harris won silver in Paris in the 50m freestyle. ( Getty Images: Adam Pretty ) Even with the added pressure of being an Olympic medallist, Harris powered down the single length of the Brisbane Aquatic Centre with a oxymoronic degree of thunderous serenity to claim gold. "I actually didn't think of it like that," Harris said with a smile when asked if she felt like she had a target on her back. "I love getting up and racing a 50. "It's a 50: It either goes right or it goes wrong at the end of the day. "We can train for it, but there's not much you can fix if the start goes wrong. "But I enjoy it every time I get up and swim it." A quick glimpse of the start list tells you all you need to know about the depth of talent in Australian swimming at the moment. Harris (24.57) beat 24-year-old Alex Perkins into second place (25.00), who was a fingernail ahead of five-time Olympic champion and "I'm definitely happy with that," Harris said. "I raced just over a month ago in America and I think I just wanted to better that, prove my training is going well, in the right direction. Meg Harris says she hopes younger swimmers will look up to the way she conducts herself. ( Getty Images: Chris Hyde ) "I'm pretty happy with how that went. "It's definitely exciting," Harris said of the depth of talent in the field. "Especially with Brisbane 32 being here in Australia. ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that's making headlines. "But I mean, even our [training] camp that we just had, it's so nice seeing all the young ones coming through, and it's just enjoyable getting up and racing with new people all the time, and at this level. It's amazing." Perkins, who won silver as part of the 4x100m medley relay team in Paris, is one of the swimmers who could step into the gap created by the swimmers ahead of her moving away from the sport. "I wasn't too worried about the position," Perkins said after her second-place finish. "You know, some of these girls have had some big breaks after Olympics, but it's always good to be in the mix and I guess do well. "I think the 50 free will still definitely be a tough ask [to qualify for the world championships team] and a very tough event, but makes it exciting." The ABC of SPORT Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday. Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
Express Tribune
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Olympians make climate plea
Bronze medallist Australia's Emma McKeon celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games women's swimming 100m freestyle medal ceremony at Sandwell Aquatics Centre, Birmingham, Britain on August 2, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS More than 400 Olympians from nearly 90 countries around the world have joined in a call for the winner of next week's International Olympic Committee presidential election to make climate their top priority. The signatories to an open letter calling for IOC action on climate change range from Australia's most decorated Olympian, swimmer Emma McKeon, to Cyrille Tchatchet II, a weightlifter who represented the refugee team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. "To the incoming President, we ask that over the coming years and the course of your presidency one issue be above all others: the care of our planet," the letter read. "Rising temperatures and extreme weather are already disrupting competition schedules, putting iconic venues at risk and affecting the health of athletes and fans. "Extreme heat is raising real concerns about whether Summer Games can be held safely in future years, and Winter Games are becoming harder to organise with reliable snow and ice conditions diminishing annually." Seven candidates are vying to replace Thomas Bach as president in a ballot of IOC members at Costa Navarino, Greece, on March 20. The Olympians called for an early meeting with the successful candidate after the election to discuss environmental concerns, and said the IOC must strengthen existing commitments on the cutting of carbon emissions. They also want the IOC to advocate for "broader environmental action", champion sustainable practices with cities hosting Olympics, and "set a standard" on sponsorship deals with companies which have a poor pollution records. Sailor Hannah Mills was one of the British Olympians who initiated the letter and she said the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, the venue for the 2028 Summer Olympics, had illustrated that climate change was an immediate threat. "I'm not sure we've ever seen so many athletes from around the world speak with one voice," said the twice Olympic champion, who is an IOC sustainability ambassador. "The terrible LA wildfires couldn't have been clearer: the time is now to set a course for a safe, bright future. "The Olympics has held and fulfilled the dreams of so many over its history but I can't have any bigger dream than a future in which my children can thrive." The IOC's existing "reduce, compensate, influence" climate commitment includes a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, compensating more than 100% of the residual emissions and encourages stakeholders and fans to act against climate change. World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, multiple Olympic swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, who is Zimbabwe's sports minister, and IOC vice president Juan Antonio Samaranch are among the favourites to succeed Bach. International cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski Federation, complete the list of candidates. Prince Feisal said he welcomed the "powerful message from Olympians around the world", while Coe, who has been vocal on the impact of climate change on athletics, said he would be delighted to meet the athlete advocates to "share ideas and initiatives".
