{"id":106293,"date":"2021-07-27T07:44:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T07:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=106293"},"modified":"2021-07-27T09:59:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T09:59:13","slug":"how-tragedy-fuelled-mckeowns-golden-swim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=106293","title":{"rendered":"How tragedy fuelled McKeown's golden swim"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sister of Australian swimming Tokyo Games gold medallist Kaylee McKeown<\/a>, 2016 Rio Olympian Taylor, says their dad would have been "doing backflips" in heaven as she charged to victory.<\/p>\n

Kaylee, 20 years of age and competing in her first Olympic campaign, this morning clocked 57.47 in the 100m backstroke to clinch gold, ahead of Canada's Kylie Masse (57.72) and America's Regan Smith (58.02).<\/p>\n

OLYMPICS LIVE BLOG: DAY 4 UPDATES, NEWS<\/strong><\/em><\/a> |<\/strong><\/em> TOKYO GAMES EVENTS CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The dad of Kaylee and Taylor, Sholto, lost a two-year battle with brain cancer when he died in August last year.<\/p>\n

But Taylor, who won gold in the 4x100m medley relay at the Rio Olympics, said Kaylee had shared "a beautiful thing" with her dad in her moment of victory in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Oh my gosh. He would be doing backflips right now, he would just be so happy and the beautiful thing is I think Kaylee knows that," Taylor said on 2GB radio.<\/p>\n

"I think she can feel it and she absolutely knows that he was there with her in that moment. What a beautiful thing for her to be able to share with him up in heaven."<\/p>\n

Kaylee has a tattoo on her right foot that reads, "I'll always be with you", in memory of her dad.<\/p>\n

"It's so special and that would have been the last thing she saw before she took off on the blocks," Taylor said.<\/p>\n

"And then when she finished the race and saw the number one she blew him a kiss and kind of recognised that he was there with her. That was just such a special moment.<\/p>\n

"We can't wait to have her back in Australia and to be able to celebrate with her."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BpLcGcblnPm\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp<\/a><\/p>\n

The parents of Australia's Olympic swimmers are gathered in Noosa for the Games, where they're watching their sons and daughters shine in Tokyo together.<\/p>\n

And in a moving tribute to the dad of Kaylee and Taylor, the boxing kangaroo mascot joining the parents in cheering on the Olympians has been named after Sholto.<\/p>\n

"Steve Titmus (dad of Ariarne Titmus<\/a>) on the first day, before the swimming started, he said, 'You know what, guys? We're here as family but we just have to acknowledge that there's one person that can't be here today and that person is Sholto'," Taylor said.<\/p>\n

"And we had … a minute's silence to recognise that and we decided that the mascot of our boxing kangaroo was going to be dad's spirit for the week, just sitting there cheering us on. It's really nice to have the boxing kangaroo, Sholto, there on the couch for every session of the swimming.<\/p>\n

"He's gone but not forgotten and certainly hasn't gone unfelt during this Olympics. His presence is there which is a beautiful thing."<\/p>\n

\"Kaylee<\/p>\n

Taylor was emotional as she described to 2GB radio host Deborah Knight just how proud she was of her younger sister.<\/p>\n

"Oh my goodness. This morning has just been an absolute whirlwind of emotion and we're still riding that wave and mum and I keep saying we can't wait to go back and watch that race again and again, because it's just the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life," Taylor said.<\/p>\n

"This is one of the best days of my life, I'm so proud of my sister and she's so humble about it, too. She's just such an amazing girl and mum and I are happy to be her hype women because she has worked so damn hard. (She is) one of the hardest trainers and is just an absolute inspiration.<\/p>\n

"I hope there's heaps of kids out there who got to watch that race today and can be inspired to chase their Olympic dream, as well.<\/p>\n

"Kaylee is just a star of the nation at the moment, along with many of the other Australians on the Olympic team, and I hope she continues to swim so well in the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

"We are so damn proud of her, just so proud."<\/p>\n

\"Kaylee<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sister of Australian swimming Tokyo Games gold medallist Kaylee McKeown, 2016 Rio Olympian Taylor, says their dad would have been "doing backflips" in heaven […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106295,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106293\/revisions\/106295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}