McKeown reveals post-Olympic struggle after winning 50m backstroke at Australian trials
Multiple Olympic gold medallist Kaylee McKeown has survived a disqualification scare to qualify for the Swimming World Championships in Singapore.
The backstroker was sensationally disqualified for moving on the blocks in her heat of the women's 50m backstroke on the first day of the Australian Swimming Trials in Adelaide, before lodging a successful protest.
After several hours, officials upheld the protest ruling that she was distracted by movement just before the start signal.
The final was the race of the night, with McKeown winning in 27.33, just .06 seconds ahead of Mollie O'Callaghan — an Olympic freestyle gold medallist.
"It's not the first time I've been DQ'd, not something that you really want to practice," she said.
She wouldn't elaborate on what happened apart from confirming she was distracted.
"Things happen and it just crumbled that way, I knew as soon as I started what I'd done, but thankfully we have the technology to look back at footage and saw the distraction and yeah, got reinstated," she said.
She said she was disappointed with her time, but didn't blame the distraction and subsequent protest.
"Tonight just wasn't my night, didn't swim the way that I wanted to," she said.
"Racing at 10 o'clock at night for a 50 isn't exactly ideal, but I can keep throwing out all these excuses. At the end of the day, I just haven't done the work I would have usually done with my prep.
She said she struggled after her double gold success in the 100m and 200m backstroke events at the Paris Olympics.
"I think when you go from such a high straight back to such a low and you're kind of left scrambling for ideas on what you're going to do next, it is hard to find your feet.
"I don't think people really know, and Mollie can second this, how much pressure we put on ourselves.
"I lost my world record [to American Regan Smith], same as Mollie going into Paris, and you're just so fixated on wanting to swim well for yourself, for your country, and for your team.
"And you know you just have all that amount of pressure to just do it under, you know 58 seconds.
O'Callaghan said she also felt immense pressure.
"We don't really have a life outside of swimming. It's just all swimming," she said.
With Ariarne Titmus in commentary for Channel 9 during her year's sabbatical from swimming, Lani Pallister stepped up to win the women's 400m freestyle final in a personal best time of 3:59.72 with Jamie Perkins more than three seconds behind.
Both women have qualified for the World Championships.
The final took place a day after Canadian Summer McIntosh smashed Titmus's former 400m free world record by more than a second.
Pallister said she was excited by McIntosh's world record.
"She's incredible. She's so young," she said.
"I think it's silly to ever say that you doubt anyone. You know Ariarne dropped the record so many times, so I don't think I thought it was going to stay stagnant for long.
"I also think it's really incredible for women's swimming going forward and everything we've done over the past decade."
McIntosh was also an inspiration for the winner of the men's 400m freestyle, Sam Short, who blitzed down the pool in of 3:41.03 — his fastest time in two years.
"She's incredible, I love watching her swim," he said of McIntosh.
"It's contagious, I love watching greatness in any sport."
Short finished fourth at the Paris Olympics — a performance he described as "a failure".
"Took me a while. I did a lot of work with sport psychology," he said.
"In our eyes it's a little bit of a failure, but I've got tonnes of mates back home who would literally chop their legs off just to get the opportunity to come fourth in the Olympics," Short said.
The man who claimed the silver medal in the 400m at Paris, Elijah Winnington, was second almost three seconds behind Short, but did enough to qualify for the World Championships.
The retirement of Emma McKeon has opened up a spot for a new madam butterfly in the Australian team.
Alexandria Perkins is the heir apparent after making the semifinals at the Paris Olympics and now she'll be going to the World Championships after winning the women's 100m butterfly in a personal best time of 56.42.
She said it was a relief to make the World Championships team.
"Definitely, I think 100 fly is always on day one and this time it was the first event, and we've still got the 50 tomorrow but it's such a relief to get the ticket booked on that flight over to Singapore," she said.
She said it was a strange experience racing without the presence of McKeon.
"She's been at the forefront of this event for so long and she's just so talented and she was amazing role model to look up to.
"It sucks that she's not here to race anymore, but hopefully we can bring 100 fly for Australia at the next big meets."
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