Australia’s McKeown shatters 100m backstroke world record

Kaylee McKeown on Saturday smashed a second world record in as many days, with the star Australian swimmer bettering her own 100m backstroke mark.

The 22-year-old touched in 57.33 seconds at the World Cup in Budapest to shave 0.12 seconds off the time she set in Adelaide before the Tokyo Olympic Games.

McKeown now owns the five fastest times in history as she builds up to next year’s Paris Olympics.

The new mark comes a day after she clocked 26.86 seconds for a new 50m backstroke world record, improving on the previous best of 26.98 seconds set by China’s Liu Xiang in 2018. 

That made her the first woman ever to hold world records in all three backstroke disciplines and the first swimmer since American Lenny Krayzelburg set all three men’s marks in 1999.

“No, I honestly didn’t think about swimming a world record,” McKeown said after her 100m exploits. 

“I was really relaxed coming into tonight. I tend to swim better when I go out a bit faster, I am trying to learn to swim a bit sharper.

“I’m happy that some of the things we are trying are working. This is a good stepping stone for the future.”

The Australian swept the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke titles at the world championships in July and also owns the Olympic 100m and 200m golds. The 50m backstroke is not contested at the Olympics.