McKeown v Fox v Titmus: the three-way race to become Australia’s greatest Olympian | Kieran Pender

Australia has a long and glittering Olympic history. But there is one record no Australian has previously surpassed. Since the first Australians competed at the 1896 Games, none have won more than three gold medals in individual events.

Emma McKeon is Australia’s most successful Olympian by gold medals – six – but four have come as part of relay victories. Fellow swimmer Ian Thorpe has five golds to his name, three in individual events. The legendary Dawn Fraser won three swimming golds across three consecutive Olympics, plus a relay gold. Golden girl Betty Cuthbert also won three individual golds as well as a relay.

In all, across more than a century of Olympic Games, there are just eight Australians to have won three individual golds. But no Australian Olympian has gone one better. Until now?

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At Paris 2024, three Australians across two sports are on the cusp of history and an achievement that would guarantee elevation to the pantheon of greatest Olympians. Jess Fox, Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown have already won gold at the 2024 Games, and now have the possibility to go where no Australian has gone before.

McKeown will have the first opportunity. The 23-year-old began her Paris campaign in perfect style on Tuesday night, defending her 100m backstroke crown from Tokyo . On Friday evening, she will attempt the “double-double” – to defend her Tokyo gold in the 200m backstroke. No Australian swimmer has achieved such a feat and it could mean much more.

If McKeown wins the 200m backstroke she will also become the first Australian in history to own four individual Olympic golds – and with an opportunity to soon extend the record. Less than an hour later, McKeown will go again – in the semi-final of the 200m individual medley, a race she did not contest in Tokyo, for a shot at swimming for greater glory in the final on Saturday.

It will be no easy feat, particularly given McKeown’s hectic schedule in Paris. But she will enter both as favourite: she holds the 200m world record and set the second fastest time in history at Australia’s swim trials last month, while her trials time in the individual medley is the fastest recorded in eight years.

“It’s great to be a part of history,” McKeown said after her 100m backstroke win. But, for now at least, she is keeping her emotions in check. “It’s one race at a time.”

Titmus will be up next on Saturday – just minutes after McKeown’s individual medley final. It has already been a superb swim meet for the Tasmanian, gold in the 400m freestyle , silver in the 200m freestyle and gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay . Her opening night gold medal, adding to the 400m and 200m freestyle crowns in Tokyo, leave her on three individual golds with one race remaining: the 800m freestyle discipline.

It would take a truly exceptional performance from Titmus for her to win gold in the 800m; her rival, Katie Ledecky, won the event at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. The American also holds the 29 fastest times in history, while Titmus’s personal best is the 33rd best time, set at last year’s world titles. But if the Australian can triumph over Ledecky, it would be a fitting way for her to join an exclusive club of Olympians – either alone, or with McKeown, depending on Friday’s results.

At the Olympic trials in June, Titmus clocked a respectable 8:14.06 in the 800m but told reporters afterwards that she was “disappointed” with the time. “I know I’m better than that but at least I get the chance to do it again at the Olympics,” she added. On Saturday, that chance will come.

Finally, on Monday, it will be Fox’s turn. Australia’s co-flag bearer at the Paris Olympics, the paddler has had a remarkable Games to date – winning gold in both the canoe and kayak slalom, and in the process defending her canoe title from Tokyo . She became the first paddler, male or female, to win both events in the same Olympics .

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But there is one more chance at glory for Fox, the newly-introduced kayak cross event. Involving a race through whitewater, with physical contact permitted, kayak cross is fast and furious – and offers an intriguing opportunity for Fox to sweep the women’s canoe events in Paris and stake her claim to being Australia’s greatest-ever Olympian.

For any of McKeown, Titmus or Fox to set a new golden benchmark, much will need to go right. They have each already claimed their rightful place in Australian Olympic history. But in the days ahead, whether alone or together, they may achieve unparalleled greatness.

Any Olympic gold medal is an impressive achievement, the pinnacle of individual sport. But the breadth of these three athletes’ feats is what elevates them to the cusp of a historic achievement.

“To win, you always have to try new things,” Titmus reflected in June, at the Olympic trials, as she worked towards what would come in Paris. “You can’t just expect to keep doing the same thing and keep winning.”