Swimming Don't miss out on the headlines from Swimming. Followed categories will be added to My News. Australian Olympic swimming champion Kaylee McKeown has pulled out of the lucrative World Cup meet in China after winning her opening race in spectacular fashion, saying she needed an immediate break for mental health reasons.
Australia’s flag-bearer at the closing ceremony for this year’s Paris Olympics, McKeown has been unbeatable in the backstroke for the past four years but also increasingly vocal about the pressure she’s felt at always being expected to win. Australian flag bearers Kaylee McKeown and Matt Wearn during the Paris Olympic Games Closing Ceremony. Picture: Pete Dovgan/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The 23-year-old had already withdrawn from this year’s short-course world championships in Budapest for her own wellbeing but had planned to swim the World Cup, which includes legs in China, Korea and Singapore, saying she was looking forward to “competing freely with no pressure.
” The 23-year-old got off to a flying start when she broke the Oceania and Australian short-course records to win the 50m backstroke final in Shanghai on Friday before announcing the next morning that she was heading straight home for a break. “I would like to thank World Aquatics for the opportunity to come out and race at World Cups, it’s been so much fun here in Shanghai,” she wrote on Instagram. “Putting my mental health first I’ve decided to cut my .