‘I’m not going to comment’: McKeown wins backstroke final after disqualification drama

The champion backstroker, who narrowly edged out Mollie O’Callaghan in the final by 0.06 seconds, was in no mood to elaborate on what distracted her.

McKeown said the drama would be a good lesson ahead of next month’s world championships in Singapore.

“I knew straight away, but I’m not really going to comment on any further. It’s just what happens,” Kaylee said on Channel Nine, before being asked again by reporters.

“Just simple. I got DQ’d [disqualified]. I got reinstated,” McKeown said.

“Thankfully we had the technology to look back at footage and saw the distraction and got reinstated. It’s good to mentally toughen yourself up.

“Tonight just wasn’t my night. Didn’t swim the way that I wanted to. Racing at 10 o’clock at night … isn’t exactly ideal.

“Coming off the Olympics, I was in a really dark place mentally. I think when you go from such a high straight back to such low, and you’re kind of left scrambling for ideas on what you’re going to do next, it is hard to find your feet once again.

“I’m really happy with where I am and the happiest I’ve been in probably a few years outside the pool.”

Meanwhile, Sam Short bounced back from his Olympic disappointment in Paris by clocking his fastest time in two years to take out his 400m freestyle final.

Short, who finished fourth in the 400m final at his maiden Olympics after battling injury and illness, comfortably edged out last year’s silver medallist Elijah Winnington by 2.96 seconds in a dominant display.

The time of 3:41.03 was also mighty impressive, given it was just a second outside German star Lukas Martens’ world record set earlier this year (3:39.96) and close to the time of 3:40.68 that Short produced during his epic 2023 world championship win in Fukuoka.

Short said his latest performance – and sharp heat swim of 3:43.21– would do wonders for his confidence after what he deemed a “failure” in Paris.

“I’ve been super motivated this year,” Short said. “I knew I could go 3:41 after this morning’s heat swim. It felt so comfy. Super stoked and I know I can go faster.

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“I’ve got [heaps] of mates at home who would chop their legs off to just get the opportunity to come fourth at the Olympics. I had to put that in perspective.”

The other impressive effort of the night was Lani Pallister becoming the seventh woman to go under the magic four-minute mark in the 400m freestyle.

With reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus watching on and Pallister’s new coach Dean Boxall urging her to the wall, the 23-year-old recorded a lifetime best of 3:59.72.

“I think I’ve been questioning it for the past week,” said Pallister of trying to get under four minutes. “Dean said it wasn’t about cracking four [minutes], it was just executing the race plan. I could see him and my mum on the last 50, and I did not want to kick my legs whatsoever.

Titmus was also asked about losing her 400m world record to Summer McIntosh last week.

“Obviously it stings a little bit when you get your world record broken, but I know how tough it is to swim that fast,” Titmus said on Nine. “She’s an absolute phenomenon.”