This was one for the nation, certainly. But this was specifically for her father, Sholto, who died last August after a two-year battle with brain cancer. There is not a day goes by that she does not think of him and, of course, she always carries that permanent reminder with her, the touching tattoo on her foot which reads “I will always be with you.” It was her father’s parting gift to her. 

After overcoming the hottest field arguably ever assembled in this race, swimming to within just .02sec of her own world record – doubly special because it was a morning swim and swimmers are accustomed to getting up for evening competition – McKeown paused for a moment to remember the dad she loves. “I hope you are proud,” she told Channel 7. “I’ll keep doing you proud.” 

No doubt her mother Sharon and sister Taylor, who represented Australia are beaming with pride. 

It was a moment of transition in Australian swimming as four-times Olympian Emily Seebohm, who placed fifth in a record-equalling third Olympic final, handed on the baton to her 20-year-old team-mate. With a silver in this event in London in 2012, Seebohm had been Australia’s most successful backstroker of all time, along with Bonnie Mealing, the Olympic runner-up at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. 

Indeed, not just her Australian rivals. No other person from anywhere in the world has bettered her time today. Indeed, she now not only owns the two fastest times in history, her world record 54.45 seconds from the Australian trials and her gold medal-winning time today, 54.47sec but three of the other entries in the all-time top 10. 

She certainly had some work to do, turning third .29sec behind race leader Canadian Kylie Masse. But then the Spartan swimmer showed all the fighting qualities of the ancient Greeks as she set off in pursuit. It was like a backstroke version of the Ariarne Titmus-Katie Ledecky final leg and once again the Australian prevailed, touching the wall in an Olympic record 54.47sec ahead of Masse 57.72sec, with the previous Olympic record holder Regan Smith claiming the bronze in 58.05sec. 

Of course, that’s the advantage of swimming on your back. You don’t have to swivel around to see the results of the electronic scoreboard. The good news was there, right in her face.  

There was also vindication for the decision McKeown and her Sunshine Coast coach Chris Mooney had made to not get greedy and attempt the backstroke final in the same session of Olympic swimming as her other powerful event, the 200m individual medley. She had the world’s fastest time in the 200m IM, so it was not an easy decision to make. But seeing her standing on the top of the Olympic podium, celebrating the fact that she had succeeded, removed all doubt. 

In her press conference later, McKeown expanded on her victory. “My legs were definitely hurting with 20m still to go. But I have trained for that and I knew that I have a really strong backend and I am just thankful that I have come away with the position that I have.” 

Larkin misses medal set but medley remains 

Mitch Larkin’s dreams of completing a full set of Olympic medals were frustrated when he never quite recovered from a poor start in the final of the 100m backstroke. 

With a silver medal already in his keeping from the 200m backstroke at the 2016 Rio Olympics along with a bronze from the medley relay there, Larkin had cause to fantasise about the gold. He is, after all, a former world champion in this event. Still, he is a realist as well, and he would have been well aware that swimming alongside him today was the fastest backstroker of all time. 

It wasn’t American Ryan Murphy who proved the danger, however but the swimmer in the other adjoining lane, Russian Evgeny Rylov. Right from the start, he and fellow Russian Kliment Kolesnikov dominated the event, with Kolesnikov leading the field down the first lap. Rylov was in hot pursuit with Ryan, who was desperately attempting to ensure that the USA won the event for a seventh time, battling away in third. 

Larkin, meanwhile, never quite threatened after having an uncharacteristically poor start. He turned seventh and that was where he would finish in 52.79sec – half a second outside his best - as Rylov overcame his countryman to win in 51.98sec, just .13sec outside Murphy’s world record. He was the only swimmer to better the 52sec barrier. 

Although banned from competing as a national team because of a four-year doping ban, some Russians are competing here under the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee). Either way, the two backstrokers created quite some history, winning Russian gold in the Olympic pool for the first time since Alexander Popov and butterflyer Denis Pankratov claimed doubles at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.  

Larkin cannot say he was deprived of motivation here at these Olympics. He swam his heats of the event in the immediate aftermath of Ariarne Titmus’ gold medal in the 400m freestyle and he hit the water today while the cheers from the Australian team still were echoing from Kaylee McKeown’s triumph in the women’s 100m backstroke. 

Still, it was not his day and, like many a veteran here, the 28-year-old Queenslander must curse the Covid crisis. Had the Games not been postponed last year because of the global pandemic, he would have gone in ranked third in the world. By the time these Olympics had finally come round, his time had slipped to 17th in the world. 

Larkin will now prepare for the 200m IM, he dropped the 200m backstroke to give himself the best chance of success here in Tokyo. He’ll swim the heats tomorrow evening and have the medley relay later in the week. 

Titmus and Wilson into 200 free final 

Swimming is, as everyone knows, all a matter of timing and certainly Titmus has come into these Games with her timing spot-on. Less than 24 hours after timing her race to perfection in the 400m freestyle final, the 20-year-old Tasmanian was doing it again to be fastest swimmer into the final of the 200m freestyle. 

Fifth at the halfway mark, Titmus again showed tactical awareness way beyond her years as she overhauled Hong Kong swimmer Siobhan Haughey down the final 50m to clock a 1.54.82 – modest by comparison to her No.1 global mark of 1.53.09 at last month’s Olympic trials, but still good enough to lead Haugher by .34sec and, more significantly American Katie Ledecky (1.55.34) by half a second. 

Racing in Ledecky’s semi-final, Madi Wilson was left with a few anxious moments before she realised that her fourth placing in 1.56.82 was just enough to scrape her into Wednesday’s final. 

A trend is developing here, with Titmus proving she has Kyle Chalmers’-like ability to make up ground in her races and Ledecky, though the defending champion in this event, would have every reason to keep looking over her shoulder when she races for gold.   

There will be plenty of Aussies in heats session on Tuesday evening including Chalmers in the heats of the 100m freestyle and we could see Mack Horton in the heats of the men’s 4x200m relay team. 

Wayne Smith

Have A Go at Swimming