World Championships, Day 3 Finals: Australia’s ‘Unstoppable’ Kaylee McKeown Edges Regan Smith in Another Classic 100 Backstroke Duel
Australia’s double Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown has lived up to her “unstoppable” tag by winning her second 100-meter backstroke World title in Singapore – just .03 outside the world record.
In a classic duel in the pool, the 22-year-old Queenslander maintained her six-year unbeaten record, clocking 57.16, the second-fastest time in history, to out-touch U.S. rival and world-record holder Regan Smith (57.35; her third fastest time ever), with American teammate Katharine Berkoff taking bronze for a second time in 58.15. It is the same podium order from the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.
McKeown’s time is a new championship, Oceania, Commonwealth and Australian record in a race she admitted she wasn’t that keen on racing – preferring to concentrate on the 200. She’s now glad she stayed with the race, which was a triumph, too, for new coach Michael Sage, following McKeown’s decision to move home to the Sunshine Coast and the USC Spartans program.
McKeown said after the race: “It’s a personal best too..so I’m so, so happy with that…it’s really emotional after the lows I came back from after the Paris Olympics….so to come out there tonight…and forget about all the press and all the nerves and just swim….and it was really nice to see my mum Sharon in the crowd holding that ‘Boxing Kangaroo’ mascot – that was special.
“I’ve worked so hard just to get myself into a happy state and it’s just what I’ve been focusing on. I think it goes to show that a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer. I have trained hard but I wasn’t expecting to make a personal best tonight,
“I think I just have to take it one step at a time, and I will swim fast. I’m just thankful that today I was able to get my hand on the wall (first).”
McKeown said it was important to stay true to herself and to remain strong.
“There were a lot of comments of me saying that I’m scared to lose but that’s not the case at all. If anything, I’m scared to fail myself,” said McKeown.
“I’ve worked really, really hard to get up there tonight and prove to myself that I am a good athlete and swimmer. It doesn’t matter if I come first or last.
“I just didn’t want to keep steering away from fear because the more that you feel fear, it becomes like a monster and you have got to chase your demons at some point. I thought it was better to start sooner rather than later.”
And on issues with her shoulder? “I’ve got a really flexible stroke and it’s my benefit when I swim my backstrokes but sometimes it can cause me to dislocate my shoulder. It’s been quite irritated but I’ve got a good medical team and physiotherapists to help me get through.”
Smith said she was incredibly pleased with her swim, admitting she didn’t believe she had that fast a swim in her under the illness circumstances that have besieged her team.
“This was my third fastest swim ever… It was a really good execution, and at the end of the day, America as a whole had the odds stacked against us. We had a really unfortunate situation happen to us during a training camp, and I did not think I was going to go 57.35.
“To come up with a silver, I can’t really control the place of the medal, but what I can control is how fast I swim and how well I can do my race, and I think I did an incredible job, especially under the circumstances.”
And what she was thinking about just before the race ? “I was thinking about the start. During my semifinals swim, my start was my weakest point. I don’t like being beaten off the start, it’s something I take a lot of pride in, so on the start, I was thinking about how I wanted my start to be and how I wanted to feel, and it worked out well, because that was one of my better starts in a while.”
Bronze medalist Berkoff said she, too, was really happy with her swim after a tough week, just getting so sick.
“I finally feel a lot better today. So I was super excited to wake up and feel decent. And I was super happy with that time, given the whole situation,” said Berkoff.
“I was just trying to execute my own race, just get the details right. It’s been an uncertain week, and I was really happy with how I executed it.”
On racing with two athletes who are the best in the event’s history?
“It’s so special. It makes it so much more inspiring,” Berkoff said. “I know every year they’re going to be ready to go really fast, have the fastest times in the world, and I want to be there too. It’s just extremely motivational, it’s really cool to be part of that backstroke history.”
McKeown has won Olympic double individual gold in both Tokyo and Paris while winning four individual world backstroke titles in between and a fifth tonight, having Smith’s measure every time.
Her sweep of the 50, 100 and 200-meter events in 2023 made her the first woman to ever pull off that triple for any stroke on the global level. Smith was the silver medallist in all three backstroke events in 2023 and in the 100 and 200 at the Paris Games.
Both women have won previous world titles in the 100m backstroke – Smith in 2022 in Budapest when McKeown chose not to race as she prepared for the Commonwealth Games.
McKeown won her first 100m title in 2023 when she beat Smith and Berkoff.
Canadian Kyle Masse (fourth in tonight’s final) won back to back crowns in 2017 and 2019 when fellow Canadian Taylor Ruck (7th tonight) finished fourth and McKeown fifth.
McKeown has never been beaten since, winning every major 100m backstroke final over the last six years, including those two Olympic gold medals in 2021 and 2024.
When it comes to times, Smith holds the world record at 57.13, set at the 2024 Olympic Trials, and also the third-fastest time, 57.28, swum in Paris when she set a new Olympic record leading off the U.S. gold medal-winning medley relay.
The Fastest Top 12 Times:
57.13WR Regan Smith (2024 Olympic Trials)
57.16 Kaylee McKeown (2025 Worlds)
57.28 Regan Smith (2024 Olympics)
57.33 Kaylee McKeown (2023, World Cup)
57.33 Kaylee McKeown (2024, Olympics)
57.35 Regan Smith (2025. Worlds)
57.41 Kaylee McKeown (2021, Olympic Trials)
57.45 Kaylee McKeown (2021, Olympic Trials)
57.46 Regan Smith (2025, TYR)
57.47 Kaylee McKeown (2024, Olympic Trials)
57.47 Kaylee McKeown (2020, Olympics)
57.50 Kaylee McKeown (2023, World Trials)