A disqualification to four-time Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown has rocked the opening day of the Australian World Championship Swimming Trials in Adelaide.
McKeown (USC Spartans, QLD) was disqualified for “moving at the start” in the heats of the 50m backstroke at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre.
The world record holder was swimming out of lane four in heat one – the last event on the opening day’s program.
Television slow motion relays showed McKeown had moved her head before the starters gun.
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.
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.
