Kaylee McKeown, 20, is an Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medalist whose alternative career choice is to be a nurse or a teacher. She is the current world record holder of the women’s 100-meter backstroke.
Kaylee made her swimming debut as part of an Australian national level team Dolphins at age 15, joining her older sister Taylor. She won her first major international medal at the 2019 World Championships claiming silver in the 200m backstroke.
Olympic gold winner Kaylee McKeown drops F-bomb during TV interview. Watch
Kaylee has had a great 2021, setting three national records in the span of one weekend, in the 200m, 100m and 50m backstroke at the Sydney Open. That was not all, with a time of 57.45 she then went on to break the world record in the women’s 100m backstroke at the Australian Swimming trials.
There’s more, 2021 also brought her the Olympic honours in Tokyo. The qualifying for the women’s 100m backstroke final saw the Olympic record fall four times. First it was broken in the heats by Canada’s Kylie Masse, then American Regan Smith, then Kaylee McKeown, before Smith took it back in the semi-final.
Also read: 30 seconds of being mask-free at the Tokyo Olympics
Finally Kaylee broke the Olympic record and came within two one-hundredths of a second of her own world record, winning the 100m backstroke gold.
Kaylee, who lost her father to cancer last August, said after the Olympic feat, “It’s definitely something that people dream of. Something I have dreamed of to make it a reality is… Yeah. Really amazing.” Blowing a kiss to her late father, she said, “I hope you’re proud and I keep doing you proud.”
Also read: Who is Katie Ledecky?
Earlier, Kaylee pulled out of the women’s 200 meters medley to focus on backstroke events, a decision that seems to have paid off.
Outside of swimming, Kaylee’s career aspiration is being either a teacher or a nurse, according to website swimming.org.au. To a question how best she would describe herself, the ace swimmer said, “loud and sometimes funny,” the website reports.
