The Dolphins are celebrating another golden day in the pool, with Australian swimmers Cameron McEvoy andKaylee McKeown each winning Olympic titles at Paris La Défense Arena on Saturday morning AEST.
McEvoy blitzed the men’s 50m freestyle final to receive his maiden Olympic individual medal before McKeown defended her crown in the women’s 200m backstroke a few minutes later.
The 30-year-old McEvoy, competing at his fourth Olympics, notched a time of 21.25 in the frantic one-lap dash, bettering Britain’s Benjamin Proud by 0.05s while hometown hero Florent Manaudou clinched bronze.
The 2023 world champion considered giving up the sport following the 2016 Rio Games, where he placed seventh in the 100m freestyle final, but 12 years after making his Olympic debut in London, the Queenslander has finally struck gold.
He becomes the first Australian to win a medal in the 50m event since its inaugural swim at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, while he’s also the first Australian man to earn gold in Paris.
“Pure joy,” McEvoy told Channel 9 after the medal ceremony.
“It’s amazing to win, but that entire 21.25 seconds was just bliss.
“I never thought I’d be able to experience that, the joy of the movement I did, let alone get a gold medal with it.
“It’s just unreal.
“I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated that much after a race either.”
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In the following race, McKeown steamed past American rival Regan Smith on the final lap of the 200m backstroke final to become the first Australian to win consecutive Olympic titles in multiple individual events.
The 23-year-old, who won the 100m backstroke event earlier this week, set a new Olympic record of 2:03.73, just 0.59s short of her own world record, to topple silver medallist Smith by 0.53s, while Canada’s Kylie Masse received bronze with a time of 2:05.57.
McKeown now boasts five Olympic gold medals, equalling swimming legend Ian Thorpe on the all-time tally.
Later, France’s Leon Marchand won gold in the men’s 200m individual medley, setting an new Olympic record of 1:54.06 to send the adoring Paris crowd into a frenzy. Britain’s Duncan Scott (1:55.31) and China’s Shun Wang (1:56.00) joined the Frenchman on the podium.
HEATS WRAP
Australians Kaylee McKeown and Ella Ramsay both progressed through their respective heats in the in the women’s 200m individual medley, qualifying sixth and ninth overall.
Elsewhere, Matthew Temple and Ben Armbruster also both qualified for the men’s 100m butterfly semi-finals.
Temple finished strong to claim second in his heat with a time of 50.89 behind France’s Maxime Grousset (50.65) while Armbruster came fifth in his heat (51.33).
Meanwhile, Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky faced off once again, this time in the women’s 800m freestyle heats as the American superstar won the heat by three seconds.
Titmus, who was just trailing Ledecky with around 500m left, came third in the heat with a time of 8:19.87 and qualified third overall.
Lani Pallister is also through to the 800m freestyle semi-finals after qualifying fourth overall, having won her heat with a time of 8:20.21.
The final heat of the morning saw Australia feature in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, with a strong finish from Kyle Chalmers seeing the quartet storm to victory with a time of 3:41.42.
It may even be an understatement to say Chalmers stormed home though after a comeback which was described as “just extraordinary” in commentary.
He was the only male in the final freestyle leg, entering the water seventh in the changeover.
The Australian team consisted of Iona Anderson, Zac Stubblety-Cook, Emma McKeon and Chalmers.
Anderson was seventh after the first 100m, with Stubblety-Cook improving Australia’s position to fifth before McKeown took over and then Chalmers, who was fourth at the 50-metre turn, finished it off in style to win by 2.18 seconds.
Australia qualified second overall with Team USA (3:40.98) first, while Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, China and France are the other nations that will feature in the final.
SWIMMING SCHEDULE — DAY 7
4.30am: Men’s 50m freestyle final — Cameron McEvoy
4.36am: Women’s 200m backstroke final — Kaylee McKeown
4.43am: Men’s 200m individual medley final
5am: Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final
5.22am: Women’s 200m individual medley semi-final
Source Agencies
