BRONZE MEDAL A WARM-UP FOR THE ONE SHE WANTS
With a bronze and relay gold in the bag, the big one is next, writes Jacquelin Magnay and Madeline Crittenden
OLYMPIC bronze medallist Emma McKeon will use the ‘’incredible’’ swim of her teammate Ariarne Titmus to fire up her own dreams of winning a record seven-medal personal haul in Tokyo.
On Monday McKeon won a bronze medal in one of the toughest events – the 100m butterfly.
But now she is focused on the one that matters - the 100m freestyle gold.
The heats of the event she won at the selection trials, beating Cate Campbell, begin on Wednesday night.
As for her bronze, McKeon is satisfied. She was beaten by world champion Canadian Maggie MacNeil and swam a PB in a nailbiting finish.
McKeon concentrated on keeping her head down in the final butterfly strokes, and the 27-year-old touched out US swimmer Torri Huske for the bronze medal by a mere one-hundredth of a second.
It was McKeon’s personal best for the event. “I’m pretty happy – I couldn’t ask for more, it was the best time I ever swam,” she said.
“I was just focused on my process and skills and how I wanted to swim it.
“Maggie swam an amazing time – 55.5 is only 0.1 away from the Olympic record.”
For McKeon, she is now two down, five to go in her stunning quest for a record seven-medal haul at these Games.
On Sunday night McKeon blitzed her relay leg as part of the recordbreaking 4x100m freestyle team.
On Monday, when McKeon had received her butterfly bronze medal and was heading for media interviews, she was able to sneak a peek at Titmus’s epic showdown with Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle. McKeon tries to keep her emotions in check – even striding to the blocks for her own races head down and without a wave to the crowd – but she was thrilled for Titmus’s win.
“It was incredible, It gave me goosebumps. I couldn’t be more happy for her,” she said.
McKeon’s parents Ron and Susie said she was a water baby destined to win medals.
“We’re very proud of her, we’re very excited for her, but obviously disappointed we can’t attend,” Susie McKeon said.