Wonder Woman and Aquaphobia Man fly into Olympic history with dual gold

The Paris pool has turned into a casting call for stellar Australian stars performing herculean feats. Editor at Large Louise Evans enjoys the drama. 

Kaylee McKeown and Cameron McEvoy emerged from the Paris pool as superheroes after rewriting the Olympic record books to include their own historic victories.

McKeown completed a unique double, winning the 200m backstroke after previously securing victory in the 100m backstroke, a feat she also accomplished at the Tokyo Olympics. 

The zany 23-year-old already has gold medals from the Tokyo Games in the 100m and 200m backstroke and 4x100m medley relay. 

Now she becomes the first Australian to win four individual Olympic gold medals and the first Australian to successfully defend Olympic titles in two different events. And she’s not finished yet.

She’s adding a third individual swim to her Paris program with the 200m individual medley, plus she has  more relays. The 200m individual medley and 4x100m mixed medley relay are on Saturday August 3 and then the 4x100m women’s medley relay Sunday August 4. 

It means that at the end of the nine-day swimming program on Sunday Wonder Woman McKeown could have five golds.

McKeown was the reigning world record holder and Olympic champion in the 200m backstroke. She swam her traditionally strong final 50m to win her historic gold in 2min03.73.

Regan Smith, 22, (USA), the reigning Olympic silver medallist and world No 2, took silver in 2min04.26 while Canada’s Kylie Masse got bronze in 2min05.57s.

McKeown said she could never have imagined winning four Olympic gold medals in individual events.

“Not in a million years,” she said. “I’m happy and glad. I put everything on line tonight.”

When asked about her history making feats she said: “History making? I feel a bit shy. I put a lot of hard work in. I was getting emotional tonight. I feel so privileged, it’s surreal. I got so emotional on the podium. History? It’s a cool thing to have next to my name, it’s amazing. I feel I have so much more to give.”

“I probably took my race out a little bit too hard, I was pretty nervous going in there tonight. I’m not one who gets overly nervous, probably more anxious than anything, so I went out out hard and just held on for dear life, and I did the same thing in the 200m medley.

“I didn’t think I would make the final so I’m super stoked to be a part of that and just have fun with it tomorrow. My main events are out of the way and tomorrow is just a fun time for me.”
 
When she came off the podium, she put her gold medal around her coach Michael Bohl’s neck, before she went off to swim the medley.

McEvoy’s feat was to develop a version of aquaphobia – the fear that water can be harmful to your health and wellbeing – that helped him become the first Australian male to ever win an Olympic 50m freestyle medal, and a gold medal at that.

McEvoy also became Australia’s oldest swimming gold medallist aged 30, winning the 50m in 21.25s. Benjamin Proud, 29, (GBR) the world No2 and world bronze medallist, won silver in 21.30s and France’s Florent Manaudou stole bronze and the heart of the French crowd in 21.56s.

The triumphs of McKeown and McEvoy lifted the entire Australian team’s gold medal tally to 11 and the seventh in the pool thanks to individual feats by Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan and the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay and the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay. 

McEvoy was overwhelmed by his breakthrough gold. “Literally I feel pure joy, it’s amazing to win,” he said. “That entire 21.25 second was bliss. I never thought I’d experience a moment like that and I got a gold medal for it.

“The first 48 metres was amazing and the last two I concentrated on getting the touch. I saw I was first and I was pleased about that. It was hard to contain. I have never celebrated that much after a race.”

Long story short, McEvoy, 29, won gold by avoiding the pool and doing 90 per cent of his training on dry land.

The dramatic shift came after he bombed at the Tokyo Olympics in the 100m freestyle, finishing 24th, so he called it quits after having won three career Olympic bronze medals in the relays at two Olympics – 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo.

He decided it was time to get on with the rest of his life, which included using his Bachelor of Science degree with majors in Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics. That’s where his nickname The Professor comes from. 

He got into rock climbing and strength-based training and went travelling through Europe. 

“I was in Paris and I thought how cool will it be to have the Olympics here in two years,” he said.  That’s when I decided to give it another crack.”

But there was no way he was going back to following that black line up and down the pool again. There had to be another way.

“My degree in physics and mathematics has introduced me to critical problem solving skills and a large toolbox of analytical approaches,” he said.

And so McEvoy got out his computer and designed a dramatic and innovative training program which has proved so highly successful, it’s set to spread like a virus through world swimming community.

His return to world swimming was dramatic. He won the 2023 world championships and then the silver 50m medal in the Doha world championships this year. 

He arrived in Paris as the only Australian male with a No.1 ranking in any event, based on best times this calendar year.  

“About 18 months ago, my goal was to just come back, give this new training approach a go and see what happens,” he said. 

“What I’ve done so far has just obliterated any expectations I had. I’m most excited to get this done (medal at Paris) and then compile what I’ve learned and just push it out there into the public.”

McEvoy leapt into the 50m freestyle final medal position by qualifying equal fastest with Britain’s Proud, in 21.38s in the semis.

“I did what I needed to do, get a good middle lane for the 50m final. No way did I ever think I was going to be equal first going into the final,” he said. With the world record sitting at 20.91 seconds, the Aquaphobic swimmer is even flirting with the idea of giving that a crack.

“You have to have confidence and at some point in my life I think I am capable,” he said. “But the Olympics is not about times, it’s about getting your hand on the wall and getting the gold, silver or bronze. I’m not thinking – I’ve got a head full of boulders – I’m just doing what I do best.”

Not surprisingly given he’s got a brain the size of a planet, McEvoy has found the slow build up to his event on day Seven rather dull. 

It’s partly his own fault as he’s surrendered his mobile and only had a temporary replacement with just two numbers – coach Tim Lane and girlfriend Maddie. “It’s terrible,” he lamented. “It was honestly almost as hard as the training itself. I blocked out all social media. I’ve changed phones, so it is just so boring.”

After winning gold and affirming his counter-intuitive training approach, McEvoy was immediately keen to take it global.

“My new training approach will help so many people and push sprinting forward,” he said “I want to thank my coach Tim Lane for the freedom to implement this new approach. He was like ‘yeah whatever you need’ and Maddie my girlfriend who’s the glue that sticks everything together.”

The night ended with even more history from French hero Leon Marchand. Fresh from executing one of the greatest backups in history by winning the 200m butterfly and breaststroke, Marchand lifted the roof off the Olympic pool again when he returned for his fourth gold medal race in the 200m individual medley.

Having already won gold in the 400m medley, the 200 was a snack. Watched on by French President Emmanuel Macron who was poolside, the baby-faced Marchand won easily in 1min54.06s, to become the first Frenchman to win four golds at a single Games. 

The 22-year-old also equaled the record for the most gold (4) won at a home Games by any athlete in Olympic history.

What a night.