Kaylee McKeown Disqualified And Then Reinstated from 50 Backstroke In Dramatic Opening Day In Adelaide
Four-time Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown was disqualified and then reinstated in a dramatic afternoon that sent the opening day of the Australian World Championship Swimming Trials in Adelaide into a spin.
McKeown (USC Spartans, QLD; coach: Michael Sage) was disqualified for “moving at the start” in the heats of the 50m backstroke at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre but after an appeal the world record holder and 2023 world champion was re-instated – officials ruling she was “distracted by a movement.”
The 23-year-old was swimming out of lane four in heat one – the last event on the opening day’s program and disqualification could have potentially robbed her of a chance to swim the event air this year’s World titles in Singapore.
In a statement, Swimming Australia said: “McKeown, the world record holder, was disqualified after being ruled to initiate an early start from lane four of heat one but her protest was upheld after officials ruled in her favour that she was distracted by a movement immediately prior to the signal.”
Television slow motion relays showed McKeown had moved her head before the starters gun.
McKeown had entered as the top seed at 27.06, which is the fastest time in the world in 2025. She is the world record holder at 26.86 seconds from 2023. She won this event at the World Aquatics Championships in 2023 as part of a triple backstroke championship. (She was disqualified from the 200 individual medley in semifinals at that meet for an illegal back-to-breast turn.)
Without McKeown, Mollie O’Callaghan set the fastest time in 27.72. That’s under the World auto qualification time, and O’Callaghan and McKeown were the only two who entered the meet with that time achieved.
McKeown’s hopes of winning a world championship gold medal in one of her favoured events looked in danger of being derailed in dramatic scenes in Adelaide after she was initially disqualified on Monday.
McKeown was one of Australia’s stars of the Paris Olympics last year, winning two gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
Her time of 27.27 in the heats was much faster than Mollie O’Callaghan (27.72) and Hannah Fredericks (28.21).
Major Trials have been rocked by disqualifications in the past – most infamously the 2004 Olympic Trials disqualification of defending champion Ian Thorpe who unceremoniously tumbled into the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
Thorpe would eventually defend his title after teammate Craig Stevens withdrew to allow Thorpe to swim and win his second gold medal.