Redcliffe-born Kaylee McKeown is one of Australia’s biggest hopes to land gold in the Olympic swimming pool this month.
The 20-year-old, who was with Australian Crawl in Burpengary, hit the headlines when smashing the world 100m backstroke record at the recent Australian trials.
She will now swim the 100m and 200m backstroke in Tokyo – and is in the 200m Individual Medley (IM) but, at the time of publication, was not confirmed for the latter.
If McKeown enters and makes the final of all three events, at her first Olympic Games, she will race for seven consecutive days (July 25-31).
“It was always the stepping stone and plan to get onto the Olympic team,” said McKeown, who lived and went to primary school in Caboolture.
“There was a bit of nerves, but also excitement at being on my first Olympic team. It should be really interesting – the 100m backstroke field and the 200m will be red hot.
“I don’t go into a meet thinking about times. I’m a process-oriented person. All I can say is … it is going to be a very fast final and even the semis.”
Alongside McKeown in Japan will be Chris Mooney, her current coach at USC Spartans in Sippy Downs, who was also head coach when both were at Burpengary.
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