MIND BLOWN! EMMA & ARNIE STUN THE WORLD
A PEERLESS and fearless Emma Mckeon was finally overwhelmed by emotion.
After blitzing the 100m freestyle final to become the most prolific gold medallist in Commonwealth Games history, she let the tears flow post-race.
And that was before Australia’s powerhouse women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team broke the world record at Sandwell Aquatics Centre and stunned the swimming world. Mckeon nearly quit swimming when she was shattered to miss qualification for the London Olympics by a fingernail as a 17-year-old.
Being a rather sensitive soul, then and now, she thought if she wasn’t going to be an Olympian, she might as well ditch the goggles and togs and go do something else.
Hanging in there until the Beijing Games triggered the most decorated career that Australian swimming has ever seen.
Her reign shows no sign of decline just two years from the Paris Games.
Mckeon’s victory in the 50m freestyle final was her 11th Commonwealth gold, lifting her above Ian Thorpe, Susie O’neill and Leisel Jones as Australia’s most successful Games athlete.
No competitor from any country in any sport has won more. Normally quite reserved in her moments of glory, a tearful Mckeon revealed how much this triumph meant to her.
“I just get in there and do my best,” she said. “It’s special. I think it kind of makes me reflect on, like, the last eight years or something since my first Commonwealth Games.
“I can just kind of see how far I’ve come as a person and athlete, to be honest. I find it hard to be proud of myself at times. So that’s been something that I’ve struggled with a bit.”
Mckeon forfeited another gold medal when she withdrew from the 4x200m final to manage her stacked program. Her spot went to Kiah Melverton, who joined Madi Wilson, Mollie O’callaghan and Ariarne Titmus to blow the roof off the joint by breaking the world record.
Titmus’s anchor split of 1min
52.82sec was the quickest of all time.
Before the 50m freestyle final, Mckeon had the air of someone who had been there and done it before, and quickly enough she did it again.
She was the fastest into the water by 0.07 seconds and the swiftest to the wall, clocking 23.99sec to beat Harris (24.32sec) and Jack (24.36sec).
“It’s really nice to be mentioned alongside some of those names,” Mckeon said when asked about the record. “I’ll be part of that history for years to come, hopefully. They’re the ones that inspired me when I was young. I’ve been watching them on TV and that lit the fire in me ... I haven’t done the maths and I don’t read the news that you guys write.
“I’m not looking at medal tallies … I’m not setting out to break any of that. Just do my best and see what I’m
c a p a b l e of.”
On the all- Australia tralia podium, she said: “It’s t’s extra special to o have one, two, three. ee. That’s the way we like ike it. We want the green and d gold on the podium.
“The place l I’m ’ at mentally ll is showh ing in my performances now. You know, I’m happy. I’m relaxed. I’m enjoying it and I’m kind of taking the pressure off myself a little bit for this meet, which I think is paying off.”
The 4x200m relay team celebrated wildly when they won by more than 12 seconds and broke the world record as Mckeon roared them home from the stands.
“I’m really happy I was able to perform for the girls,” Titmus said. “It’s moments like this that we do it for.”
And Kyle Chalmers broke the 100m freestyle Games record to qualify fastest for the final.
If he has a chip on his shoulder the size of the Birmingham Bull, he could have a gold medal around his neck for the first time since the Rio Olympics if his semi-final was any indication. His 47.36sec suggested he was a man on a mission and the one to beat.