Emma McKeon just won a gold medal in the women’s 50m freestyle finals and in the women’s 4x100m medley relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, making her the athlete with the most Olympic medals ever in Australian history.
The 27-year-old swimmer now has eleven Olympic medals under her swimming cap, seven of which she’s earned at this year’s Olympic Games. Her golds today are her third and fourth in Tokyo.
In the women’s 50m freestyle, the swimming superstar beat her competition with an Olympic record time of 23.81 seconds. Fellow Aussie swimmer Cate Campbell, who got bronze with a time of 52.52 seconds, reportedly told her as they sat in the pool after the race, “I’m so proud of you.”
You can watch that race here.
What have you accomplished this Sunday morning?
Emma McKeown’s won TWO Olympic gold medals.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻— Georgia Steele (@steele4hughes) August 1, 2021
McKeon has also set other new records in the heat, semi-final and final, and beat the previous world record title owner, Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem, by 0.26 seconds. OOF.
As Channel 7’s sports commentator described her when she won her 50m today, she’s in “a lane of her own.”
“The first Australian to win ten Olympic medals… She is the queen of this pool.”
Less than an hour after that, she competed in the women’s 4×100 medley relay finals, where our swimming legends—Kaylee McKeown, Chelsea Hodges, McKeon, and Campbell—beat the USA team by just 0.13 seconds. The team made a new Olympic record of 3:51.60 minutes, too. BIG FKN OOF.
What an anchor leg from Cate Campbell. Emma McKeon, Chelsea Hodges and Kaylee McKeown are all superstars #olympics
— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) August 1, 2021
What a race….Australia have taken Gold in the Women’s 4×100 medley relay…..they were trailing after the backstroke by a fair margin but Emma MCKeown started to pull it back in the fly before Cate Campbell brought it home in an Olympic record
— Digvijay Singh Deo (@DiggySinghDeo) August 1, 2021
GOLD TO AUS in the women’s 4 x 100m medley relay … last women’s event in the pool … Emma McKeon, Chelsea Hodges, Cate Campbell & Kaylee McKeown 👏 🇦🇺 #Tokyo2020
— Glenn Mitchell (@MitchellGlenn) August 1, 2021
Emma McKeown becomes the most successful Australian swimmer of all time with 11 medals and also the most successful individual female athlete at a single Games with seven medals.
— Teng Kiat (@tengkiat) August 1, 2021
That means that McKeon has won seven (7!!) medals in these Olympics alone. The only person in sports history to do so is Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya who won seven medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Emma McKeon has won gold in the women’s 4x100m relay semi-finals and finals, the 100m freestyle and today’s 50m freestyle, as well as bronze in the 100m butterfly, women’s 4x200m relay, and mixed 4x100m medley relay.
Speaking to Channel 7 after getting gold in the women’s 100m freestyle on Friday night, McKeon said: “Honestly, my emotions are a bit all over the place right now.” As are ours, Emma.
No other Australia has ever won 10 Olympic medals, let alone seven medals in one Olympic Games. So, basically, give this woman Young Aussie of the Year already. With Emma’s smashing success and our young gun sprinter Rohan Browning‘s potential achievements tonight, our team’s had a good bloody Olympic weekend.
