{"id":453518,"date":"2025-06-16T04:46:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T04:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=453518"},"modified":"2025-06-16T22:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T22:15:17","slug":"mckeown-whacks-critics-drops-key-hint-after-dq-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=453518","title":{"rendered":"McKeown whacks critics, drops key hint after DQ saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown<\/a>\ufeff has released a sharply worded statement on the disqualification saga that rocked last week's national trials<\/a>, hinting at what distracted her, declaring she was not "shown any favouritism" and calling out people for "tearing others down".<\/p>\n

On a dramatic opening day of the trials for the Singapore world championships, McKeown was disqualified in Adelaide after her heat in the 50-metre backstroke, and then reinstated, after it was ruled she had been distracted by a movement immediately prior to the signal.<\/p>\n

McKeown is the world record holder in the 50m backstroke and the Sunshine Coast superstar won gold in the event at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.<\/p>\n

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McKeown, who touched first in her heat, was reinstated just over an hour after her heat and proceeded to win Monday night's final, stopping the clock at 27.33 seconds.<\/p>\n

Finishing in the top two and hitting Swimming Australia's time standard, which was 27.74 seconds,\ufeff qualified her for the world titles in the 50m backstroke.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old \ufeffsaid after the final she didn't feel comfortable commenting on what distracted her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kaylee<\/p>\n

But in a statement posted to Instagram on Sunday night, the five-time Olympic gold medallist hinted at the cause of her early movement, and hit out at her critics.<\/p>\n

"I've copped quite a bit of scrutiny over the past week for my DQ in the 50 backstroke," McKeown wrote.<\/p>\n

"I'd just like to clarify that while it was a clear disqualification, I was able to lodge a protest due to movement directly behind my starting block.<\/p>\n

"I followed all the standard procedures for my reinstatement!<\/p>\n

"For those\ufeff who know me well, you'll know I'm all for fair sport and certainly wouldn't have protested if I knew I didn't have a fair case.<\/p>\n

"What I'm not for is people tearing others down.<\/p>\n

"At no point was I shown any favouritism."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Kaylee<\/p>\n

\ufeffStanding directly behind McKeown's block was a photographer, although she didn't specifically pinpoint the photographer as the source of distraction in her statement.<\/p>\n

"I knew [what caused the movement]," she told Cate Campbell<\/a> on Nine after the final.<\/p>\n

"I knew straight away.<\/p>\n

"But … I'm not really going to comment on it any further. It's just what happens."<\/p>\n

She made a similar remark in a chat with reporters after her interview on the broadcast.<\/p>\n

"Just simple \u2014 I got DQ'd, I got reinstated … That's as far as I feel comfortable saying," McKeown said.<\/p>\n

"Things happen, and it just crumbled that way.<\/p>\n

"I knew as soon as I started what I'd done."<\/p>\n

The world championships will be held between July 28 and August 3.<\/p>\n

McKeown will contest the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke events.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"McKeown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown\ufeff has released a sharply worded statement on the disqualification saga that rocked last week's national trials, hinting at what distracted […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452912,"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\/453518"}],"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=453518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453523,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453518\/revisions\/453523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/452912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=453518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=453518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=453518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}