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Olympic champion and six-time Commonwealth Games medallist Kaylee McKeown has been forced to medically withdraw from the upcoming Games in Glasgow, less than two weeks out from the start of competition.
Swimming Australia announced on Friday morning that McKeown – one of the greatest backstrokers of all time and a five-time Olympic gold medal winner – had withdrawn from this month’s competition after coming down with glandular fever.
The 24-year-old’s withdrawal is a huge blow for the Australian swim team in Glasgow, with McKeown winning the women’s 100m and 200m backstroke at the 2022 Games in Birmingham and swimming as part of the team that won gold in the women’s 4x100m medley relay and mixed 4x100m medley relay. She could have won up to four gold medals for Australia, including relays.
McKeown said the news would be a shock to her Dolphins’ teammates – most of whom would find out about her withdrawal at the same time as the Australian public. She has also withdrawn from the Pan Pacific Championships in California next month, where she would have raced against her arch-rival Regan Smith from the USA in backstroke events.
“I am gutted to medically withdraw. What I thought a few months ago was the flu has turned out to be my body fighting glandular fever, ” she said.
“I was sick going into Trials and I just have not got better and I am worried about pushing myself so hard that I end up with chronic fatigue.
“It was a hard decision to make but it was the right one.”
In a column for The Courier-Mail, McKeown wrote: “The loss of breath and fatigue just after an easy warm-up, not being able to eat, feeling tired all the time, insomnia combined with napping. But the big tell for me was this: sleeping for hours and waking up feeling like I hadn’t slept at all.
“I was swimming times I hadn’t seen since I was 13 and struggling with gym weights I would normally lift with ease.
“Still, I kept pushing through, convincing myself I was just in a hole and that if I worked hard enough, I’d eventually find my way out of it. But deep down, I knew something wasn’t right. My body wasn’t just tired — it felt like it was trying to tell me something, and I had been refusing to listen.”
McKeown said the exhaustion she had experienced across the past few months was like nothing she had felt before, with high fevers, headaches and muscle aches.
Despite the illness, McKeown swam at the Australian trials in Sydney last month, where she won the women’s 200m and 100m backstroke finals. However, she withdrew from the 200m individual medley.
The withdrawal from Glasgow will end McKeown’s Commonwealth Games career, after she confirmed the 2026 Games – if she had competed – would have been her last.
“The plan is to give my body all the rest and recovery it needs so I can come back ready and roaring for the next season of racing,” McKeown wrote in her column.
“I’m not exactly sure what that looks like for me just yet — all I know is that the return will be slow, steady and built up in small steps.”
In a statement, Australian coach Rohan Taylor said: “At this point in time, Kaylee’s health is the most important thing. We all know how fierce and competitive she is – and she showed that by performing the way she did at trials. Kaylee is a once in a generation athlete - she is what we call a racer.
“We are going to miss her on team not just in the pool but out of the pool with her experience and leadership but I personally feel, respect and support her decision to prioritise health.
“I know after trials she significantly modified her training program to the point of no high-intensity work and she just didn’t improve. We can’t wait to see her well again and back in the water competing.”
