Women’s 100m free

Emma McKeon was all set to become the third Australian after the Dawn Fraser (1956-64) and Jodie Henry (2004) to win this event. Not only did she hit some outstanding speed already in springtime but the landscape had also changed dramatically with the pandemic erupting. Title-holder and 2017-19 world champion Simone Manuel of the USA fell short of qualifying for her pet event and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, world record-setter in 2017, broke her elbow at the beginning of the season and now it’s clear that she has been unable to regain his top form by now.

The only one endangering McKeon’s chances was fellow Aussie Cate Campbell, though Siobhan Haughey from Hongkong, silver medallist in the 200m, also showed up as a legitimate challenger lately.

Still, McKeon was an outstanding favourite and she didn’t crack under the pressure. At the wall they were together with Haughey, only 0.02sec separated them but in the second 50m the Aussie stormed away, won by 0.31sec and became the second female ever after Sarah Sjostrom to swim the 100m under 52sec (51.96, an Olympic record – and the first who did it in an individual event as the Swede achieved her 51.71 in the first leg of the relay in Budapest). 

Haughey also offered some ‘first-ever’ stuff besides clocking a new Asian record (52.27): she is the first athlete from Hongkong who claimed two medals at the Olympics. Cate Campbell was a distant third, just 0.07sec ahead of Canada’s Penny Oleksiak, to give her country a 1-3 finish, something hasn’t happened since 1956 when three Aussies paraded on the podium at the home Games in Melbourne. Full results

“I still can’t believe I’ve just won a gold medal, the emotions will really come out when I get back to Wollo” McKeon said, referring to her home town of Wollongong. “I worked hard. I know Michael (Bohl, her coach) has put so much hard work into me and made me the best prepared that I could.”

Asked if she ever doubted herself after claiming silver and bronze medals (including a bronze here in the 100m fly) but never gold in individual events, she replied “I never started to wonder about anything like that. I definitely had belief in myself, and that has built over the last two years. But to actually pull it off is a totally different thing sometimes. To have finally done it, I am over the moon.”

Australian women are excelling here in Tokyo, the female swimmers already amassed five titles. “I think the standards among everyone have just lifted” commented McKeon. “Especially these last few years we have had so many people pushing each other. Racing amongst each other we can just lift the standards and push each other. That has really helped.”

Writing sport history in Hongkong, Siobhan Haughey was in an upbeat mood. “I am really happy that I won another medal. I didn’t really have a lot of expectations going into this race, because I had already had my best time yesterday, when I broke the Asian record. What I wanted to do today was have fun and enjoy the whole experience. The fact that I went below my best time and came with another medal is so surreal.”