Kaylee McKeown hopes to race into history on night seven of finals at Paris La Défense Arena as the first swimmer to complete the 100m-200m backstroke double at consecutive Olympic Games.
If she does, she is out on her own; no Australian Olympian has won more than three gold medals in individual events.
Kaylee owns the world record for the event and has looked in form this week, winning the 100m Backstroke in commanding style and easing into the 200m Backstroke final as the second-fastest seed behind American Phoebe Bacon.
Blink and you might miss Cam McEvoy racing for gold in the men’s 50m Freestyle, while French cult hero Leon Marchand has the chance to win a staggering fourth individual gold medal at these Games in the 200m IM.
In heat swims on day seven, Matt Temple (50.89s) was seventh quickest through to the semis of the 100m Butterfly, while Ben Armbruster (51.33s) continued his impressive meet to be through in 11th.
“I’m pretty happy. I was actually a bit shocked after trials going 51 after feeling good,” Matt said.
“It was a good morning swim. I’ll go home and have a snooze. Maybe at trials I put a bit too much pressure on myself. To do that time felt strong.”
Ella Ramsay (2:10.75) was through in sixth and Kaylee (2:11.26) ninth after the heats of the 200m IM, while Ariarne Titmus (8:19.87) and Lani Pallister (8:20.21) safely navigated their way through the 800m Freestyle heats to be the third and fourth fastest qualifiers behind American pair Katie Ledecky and Paige Madden.
Australia (3:41.42) qualified second-fastest for the 4x100m Mixed Medley relay, which sees swimmers all across the pool at various stages of the event as they mix up male and female relay legs.
The Dolphins opted for Iona Anderson (backstroke), Zac Stubblety-Cook (breaststroke), Emma McKeon (butterfly) and Kyle Chalmers (freestyle), with Kyle overhauling the entire field in his leg to take out the heat for Australia.
Phil Lutton
