Australia News

McKeown's Eighth Sub-2:04 Wonder For World of 200 Back

Inside her World-record pace to half way, Kaylee McKeown was asked if slight illness had knocked her chances: "No, I think it's a bit of everything ... nerves, being crook, everything. Sometimes you just can't get all the stars to line up, but... I'm happy with that - my fastest of this year"

by Craig Lord Nicole Jeffery

published June 11, 2026

Kaylee McKeown now has eight of the 12 sub-2:04 efforts over 200m backstroke, a 2:03.98 slotting into her all-time list at No8 and the all-time ranks at No11.

The other three sub-2:04s all belong to American rival and friend in pursuit of pioneering progress on the backstroke clock, American Regan Smith. Their duel, topped by McKeown's 2:03.14 World record, highlights the ahead-of-time majesty of Missy Franklin's 2:04.06 for Olympic gold for the USA at London 2012, two years into a return to textile suits.

It took 21 years for the World Record to fall just over 2.5sec from the 2:06.62 of Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi in August 1991 to the next record set in a textile suit (via four shiny suit times), Franklin's 2:04.06 in August 2012. The day of this gen' getting more than a second inside that blast in London was not this day .. yet, it feels tantalisingly close on the way to a date at LA'28.

Smith took that standard down back in 2019 at a breakthrough World Championships in Gwangju, a 2:03.35 in her semi followed up with a 2:03.69 for the crown, with McKeown joining the ranks of senior Dolphin successes with silver in 2:06.69.

Since then, McKeown, now coached by Michael Sage at USC Spartans, has never lost a 200m race against Smith, nor any 200m race of any significance. The Australian's pantheon includes the unique feat of winning back-to-back Olympic 100m and 200m Olympic titles at Tokyo 2020ne and Paris 2024. The 200m in Paris marked the a pioneering moment for the swim sorority as McKeown joined the only other great of the sport ever to claim four Olympic backstroke titles (and also back-to-back at that), German 'Rolls Royce" of the discipline, Roland Matthes (1968-1972).

Today in Sydney, in the pool where she set the world record in 2023, McKeown made it a victory sweep of all three backstroke finals at Australian Trials with a 2:03.98 compared well to her all-time top two efforts: inside her own World record pace at 50 and 100, she slipped 0.24sec off it by the last turn, her homecoming lap a touch over half a second from the speed of 2023 and 2024:

29.34; 1:00.73 (31.39) 1:31.84 (31.11) 2:03.14 (31.30) McKeown, Sydney 2023
29.08; 1:00.58 (31.50) 1:32.05 (31.47) 2:03.30 (31.25) McKeown, Brisbane 2024
29.00; 1:00.58 (31.58) 1:32.08 (31.50) 2:03.98 (31.90) McKeown, Sydney 2026

**KAYLEE MCKEOWN - photos by Delly Carr, courtesy of Swimming Australia**

Closest to her were two 2:07s, Iona Anderson keeping Hannah Fredericks at bay 2:07.59 to 2:07.99:

All of which added another line in a duel in which McKeown has the edge own the clock over 200m to match her Midas Touch on race day:

Poolside wth Nicole Jeffery in Sydney:

Top of the annual world ranks with the first sub-2:04 of the year atop a podium where all three medallists achieved selection as Dolphins in international waters this coming big-championship season, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the first target, McKeown had arrived at the meet with a slight respiratory infection and was unsure about how I might all go.

Her third gold in the bag, she said:

"Look, I knew it was going be challenging with the week that I've had so far, so I kind of just said to myself, go out well. The Americans are doing that at the moment, so I need to get used to racing like that. Unfortunately I died in the back end, but hopefully with a bit more training, a bit more confidence the times will come."

Had the illness played a part in her loss of edge on the clock over the second half of the race?

"No, I think it's a bit of everything to be honest, nerves, being crook, everything. Sometimes you just can't get all the stars to line up, but, um, yeah, I'm happy with that, the fastest I've been this year."

Seeing a 2:03 on the board, and given how you were feeling earlier in the week, I'd imagine you'd take that, right?

"Yeah, but sometimes when you have sickness, you can kind of use that as a little bit of an excuse to take the pressure off yourself. So, I guess that maybe is why my mindset's gone back a little bit, but I was quite nervous for that race tonight, more so for the pain. It never gets easier. I think I need to start doing a bit longer racing distances to kind of make that event feel easier."

The further into your career you get, and you've achieved so much, and you've been to so many meets, does it make it more difficult to get up for meets like this?

"I mean, I'm only 24 years old, and in the grand scheme of things, I'm not old, but I'm an experienced athlete is the way that I would say it. With that, sometimes it does get hard coming to these meets and not having any pressure like the Americans, so you've got to create that yourself. I've come here at New South Wales (Champs) and broken a world record before, so I know that I'm capable of swimming without people beside me. But it’s getting comfortable with myself and knowing to trust myself."

"... when you think back to when you're younger, you climb up a tree and then jump out of the tree and not necessarily think about breaking your arm. The older you get, the more you think about that. And it's the same for swimming. For me, I just think about the pain of this event. I don't necessarily think about, you know, the race itself anymore. It's like dreading the pain. So, yeah, that's what I mean."