PERSEVERANCE & HARD WORK
PAY OFF
After not qualifying for Australia’s Olympic team in 2012, Emma McKeon was ready to quit...but over the next several months, she had a change of heart and understood what was necessary to compete at a higher level. Since then, she has become a significant international force, a consistent podium presence and one of the world’s most impactful relay swimmers. BY DAVID RIEDER PHOTOS BY DELLY CARR / SWIMMING AUSTRALIA
A
t Australia’s Olympic Swimming Trials in 2012, Emma McKeon, then 17, finished seventh in the 100 free, one spot away from qualifying for her first Olympics in the 400 free relay. That same week, she watched her older brother, David, win the 400 free and place third in the 200 free to qualify for London. She was ready to give it all up! “I was really upset when I missed that team—obviously because my brother made it, and our other training partner, Jarrod Poort...he made it as well in the 1500. I was really upset after that, and then I actually stopped swimming not long after the Trials,” McKeon said. “I knew I wanted to go to the Olympics, but I didn’t want to wait another four years, so I was like, ‘I’ll just stop.’” But over the next several months, around the time she traveled to London to watch David compete, McKeon began to understand the level of effort necessary in order to qualify for international meets and to become one of the world’s best swimmers. So when she returned to the sport in late 2012, McKeon said, “I guess I just knew that you have to be showing up to training every day and doing everything properly to be able to perform at the level I wanted to perform at.” And then, less than 12 months after London, McKeon found herself in a key spot on an Australian relay battling for a World Championships title—and she has been in that same central role each year since.
A SWIMMING FAMILY
Speaking of McKeon’s family, her father, Ron, was a two-time Olympian for Australia—in 1980 and 1984—and he won four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, including gold medals in the 200 and 400 free in 1978. McKeon’s mother, Susie, swam at the Commonwealth Games in 1982, and McKeon’s uncle, Rob Woodhouse, swam at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics for Australia. 22
FEBRUARY 2021
SWIMMINGWORLD.COM
During her childhood, McKeon grew up constantly around the pool and the beach, and her parents ran a swimming school in Wollongong, New South Wales. So, quite literally, the only life McKeon knows centers around swimming. Ron actually coached both Emma and David through the early parts of their careers, so the family had to find balance between the swimmer-coach and parent-child relationships. But during Emma’s late teenage years, both McKeons decided to move to Queensland to continue training. Putting his ego aside, Ron gave full support to Emma and David making that change. “I loved having my dad as my coach, but he also wanted the both of us to know what it was like to have a coach that wasn’t your dad. He wanted to let us have that opportunity,” Emma said. “It was hard because it was just what I was so used to, but it was also good for me to grow and also work harder.” Concurrent with Emma’s success, David became one of Australia’s best in the middle distance events. He qualified for both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in the 400 free and 800 free relay. He won a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014 on the 800 free relay and a silver in the 400 free, and he qualified for the 400 free Olympic final in 2016, finishing seventh. In Rio, David and Emma became the first brother-sister combination to represent Australia in Olympic swimming since John and Ilsa Konrads in 1960. Emma remembers feeling nervous as she watched her brother compete in between her own swims in the 100 fly semifinal and as part of Australia’s 400 free relay. The two siblings trained in different squads for a time, but both swam in Michael Bohl’s group on the Gold Coast prior to David’s retirement in January. Bohl previously coached three-time Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Rice, and the group now includes Australian standouts Emily Seebohm, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Georgia Bohl and Taylor McKeown. On the Gold Coast, the McKeon siblings
