Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown withdraws from 200m individual medley

McKeown is ranked No. 1 in all three of her individual events, but has opted to focus on her two backstroke races and the relays.

Australian head coach Rohan Taylor cited workload and schedule management for her shock withdrawal from an event in which she was a gold medal favourite.

“You know, you’ve got a rookie coming into the Olympics. It’s just a new experience for her,” Taylor said, as reported by NewsCorp.

“It’s a big call and they’ve gone through it for months talking about it and I respect the decision. They’re going to focus on the backstrokes and the medley relay.”

Subsequently, the Australian swimming team will have no representative in either women’s individual medley event in Tokyo.

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The women’s 100m backstroke semi-finals take place in the midday session on Monday, July 26, with the final scheduled for 24 hours later.

The 200m medley heats will occur during the evening session of July 26, when McKeown could be resting in preparation for the backstroke final.

“It’ll be a late night because of the late heats, so she will potentially lose sleep and the 100m back is a tight event,” Taylor said.

“There’s some quality athletes in that 100m back and I think they just want to make sure she’s sharp and at her best. I wouldn’t think any of the other 100m backstrokers would be swimming that night. They’d be back in the village resting.”

Last month, McKeown made headlines after breaking the 100m backstroke world record at the Olympic swimming trials in Adelaide.

The 20-year-old qualified for the Tokyo Games with a sizzling time of 57.45, putting her firmly in the conversation for a gold medal.

The Australian Olympic swimming trials featured just heats and finals, whereas the Tokyo Games have heats, semi-finals and finals.

Back in May, McKeown also remarkably broke three national records in three days at the Sydney Open.

No Australian woman has ever won a gold medal in backstroke at the Olympics, but McKeown is tipped to break that drought next week.

McKeown’s father passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer last year, and the swimming phenom got the phrase “I’ll always be with you” tattooed on her foot in his honour.

The Queenslander sees the tattoo every time she gets up for her backstroke starts.

“It just so happens that I can see the ‘be with you’, so it’s kind of cool to see that because I know that he will be with me and that’s just very precious,“ she said.

“We are a very optimistic family and we took every day as it came, through the chemo and the radiation. It came to around this time last year and things started to really decline.

“It was hard for me being a younger adult seeing my dad really struggle.

“But it was extra motivation. Every day seeing him in the hospital bed was just a reminder of how lucky I am to be healthy and be alive.

“So for me personally I never take a day for granted any more because I know he would be so disappointed if I rocked up to training and like, ‘I’m not going to try’.

“My dad in many ways is my big inspiration now. I use him in the last 50 of my racing like ‘come on dad, help me cross the line’, because I know he is there.”