Kaylee McKeown Retains Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year Honors

Kaylee McKeown Continues Backstroke Dominance; Retains Pacific Rim Swimmer of Year Honors

Her run as the perfect backstroker on this planet has now reached 5 years. Kaylee McKeown was as soon as once more a dominant performer in 2025, overtaking longtime rival Regan Smith to win gold medals within the 100 and 200 backstroke on the Singapore World Championships. McKeown additionally broke the quick course world document within the 200 again on two events as she raced on the World Cup circuit.

For these achievements, McKeown has earned the Pacific Rim Female Swimmer of the Year award for the third consecutive yr. McKeown was additionally the World Female Swimmer of the Year in 2023 whereas incomes top-five finishes in that class in 2024 and 2025. Australia has traditionally dominated this Pacific Rim award, however McKeown is just the fourth swimmer to high the class on no less than three separate events, becoming a member of countrywomen Susie O’Neill (1995, 1998-2000), Leisel Jones (2003, 2005-2006) and Cate Campbell (2013-2014, 2018).

While McKeown has dabbled in particular person medley competitors in earlier years, she targeted on backstroke racing in 2025 to nice success. In the Worlds remaining of the 100 again, McKeown turned two tenths behind Smith on the midway level earlier than scorching down the stretch with a 29.24 closing cut up. That allowed her to get to the wall in 57.16, reducing her personal Australian document and coming inside three hundredths of Smith’s world document. The end was a digital repeat of the Paris Olympic remaining and the 2023 Worlds remaining, with McKeown overtaking Smith for gold by a small margin whereas Katharine Berkoff claimed bronze.

Four days later, McKeown was biding her time by means of the early phases of the 200 again remaining, saving an unbelievable 30.83 closing burst for the final size as she pulled forward to win by greater than a second. The 24-year-old Australian clocked 2:03.33, the third-fastest time in historical past. McKeown concluded her World Championships run by main off the Australian ladies’s 400 medley relay, which secured a silver medal.

McKeown would return to worldwide competitors in October, touring to North America to compete in all three stops of the World Cup circuit. She scored seven victories in 9 backstroke races throughout that journey, most notably together with her world data within the 200 again in Westmont, Ill., and in Toronto. No one had ever been beneath 1:58 within the occasion earlier than the Westmont race the place McKeown held off Smith by 4 hundredths, 1:57.87 to 1:57.91. Both ladies have been beneath the earlier international customary, however McKeown acquired to maintain the mark. Six days later, a nearly-identical state of affairs unfolded as each ladies broke the world document, but it surely was McKeown with a masterful time of 1:57.33.

In lengthy course, McKeown’s World Championships instances rank her first on this planet this yr in each the 100 and 200 again, and her high mark of 27.06 within the 50 sat No. 2 globally. Although she didn’t race the 50 again at this yr’s Worlds, she stays the world-record holder in that distance. With that occasion added to the Olympic program for 2028, McKeown will undoubtedly be a menace to assert gold. She additionally completed sixth on this planet within the 200 IM (2:08.58).

With these accomplishments, McKeown continues to construct her case as among the finest backstrokers in historical past. In Paris, she grew to become the one Australian lady in historical past to win back-to-back gold medals in two separate swimming occasions, and he or she stays the swimmer to beat on the halfway level of this quad.