LONG ROAD BACK
Mckeon makes huge splash for gold record
AS ONE of Australia’s most experienced swimmers, Emma Mckeon’s ability to cut out the noise has been matched by only the best athletes in this country’s history.
“She’s always had that inbuilt determination and desire to be a force on the world stage,” said her coach Michael Bohl.
“She knows how to knuckle down and get very, very focused and in the moment with what she’s preparing for.”
So much so, it wasn’t until a post-race interview on the final day of the meet at the Tokyo Olympics that she even knew she had passed Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones’ previous record of nine medals.
The 27-year-old went into Tokyo as a four-time Olympic medallist. She left Japan with seven new medals, including four golds, to take her tally to 11.
“I didn’t know what Thorpey’s medal tally was or anything like that,” Mckeon said.
“I wasn’t counting them as I was going, I was taking it raceby-race and being so focused in the moment of what I was doing. So that kind of came as a bit of a shock to me.
“And then on the last day where I won two in the one session – I won the 50 freestyle and then we got gold in the relay – and then they said, ‘You’re now the most successful Australian Olympian’.
“That was very, very strange to hear. I was a young girl once looking up to all these incredible athletes and dreaming of doing something like that.”
FORTUNE SMILES
DESPITE her distinguished record, until Tokyo, Mckeon’s career had felt like unfulfilled potential to Bohl. An athlete with incredible talent, she never had fortune on her side.
But there was one trait he noticed at the Olympics, the moment he knew something special was brewing. All it took was seeing a grin on her face, worn more proudly than any medal she had won.
“Her father once said, ‘When Emma’s smiling, she’s ready to go,” Bohl said.
“When she hasn’t got that smile on her face, that’s when you’ve got to start to get a bit worried.”
While it might be hard to believe, swimming has hardly been all smiles for Mckeon.
Throughout her teenage years, Mckeon remembers at least two separate occasions when she gave up swimming.
She was mentally exhausted from the heavy commitment and no longer had the desire to pursue it as a career.
“I was really confused and stressed about it t for so long,” Mckeon said.
“I put a lot of f unnecessary pressure on myself at the time in swimwimming, and that took the enjoyment out of it for me.
“Especially when you’re still l at school, the ennjoyment side is the main part.
“If you’re not t enjoying it, go find d something else. It’s OK to just stop, to take the time off f and come back when and if you feel like it. And that’s what I did in the end.”
FINDING MOTIVATION
THE motivation for Mckeon’s resilience has always been trying to atone for perceived failures.
Missing out on the London Olympics; three silver medals at the 2013 World Championships; it wasn’t until she stood on top of the podium at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow that she felt like she had finally broken through.
“Looking back on past events gives me confidence and I have things that I’ve learned from those I can use in the future,” Mckeon said.
“But I go through ups and downs of motivation.
“It’s unrealistic to think you’re going to be motivated 100 per cent every day in every session. Realising that and accepting that is a big thing.”
The formative moment for Mckeon was the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Despite coming away with a brilliant medal haul for her first Games – one relay gold, two relay silvers and an individual bronze – Bohl could sense the disappointment she felt after not being able to compete at her best.
In his time as a coach, he’s never seen an athlete able to turn that feeling of frustration into motivation better than Mckeon has.
“She swam well there and came away with four medals but I think she felt the high expectation pectat on the individual vidu (events) and she felt she could have ha done better,” he said.
“Qualifying second, the expectation for yourself as an athlete is that you’re a c chance of getting on o the podium.
She went slower in the fin final and that stunned stunne and hurt her. “Tho Those memories of failure or o horrible experiences can ca do two things. “The They can make you not want wan to compete anymore or it can steel your resolve to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
TOKYO was all about timing her run. She knew she was capable of world-beating times, and planning for that to happen in a two-week period, four years in the future, became the next step.
Throw in an extra 12 months due to the Covid-postponement and the pressure had built.
“I wanted to go there and win gold and that was everything I was training for. Every time I was doing a training set or felt tired, that’s what I thought about,” Mckeon said.
“But I tried to not overwhelm myself with so much pressure, I tried to have that motivate me but not put pressure on.
“With the times I’d been doing all year, I was the favourite but I saw it more as once you’re in the Olympic final, anything can happen. I knew that I‘d worked hard enough and prepared as much as I could. So all I could do was go in and do what I practised, really.”
The rest was history.