Kaylee McKeown’s backstroke disqualification, protest win; Ariarne Titmus analysis

ADELAIDE: Perhaps outside Kaylee McKeown‘s inner circle, and probably the technical officials who investigated her flinch on the wall, the only person who truly knows what caused her ever-so-slight movement prior to the signal is the backstroke queen herself.

Everyone else who was left in disbelief by her disqualification on day one of the Australian world championship trials can guess what caused it, and may even be able to formulate an educated idea as to what happened, but there is only a finite number of people who truly know.

On one hand, it is a moot topic. Yes, her head moved before the electronic beep went off in her heat of the 50-metre backstroke on Monday afternoon, but she appealed the disqualification and was reinstated. Satisfied with McKeown’s argument that she had been distracted, officials let her off. She then returned to the same square metre of SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre on Monday night, in lane four to be precise, and did what she had to do in the final to qualify for the Singapore world championships. The event’s world record holder will be there in July when the beep goes off, ready to pounce off the wall in search of more gleaming gold.

At the same time, what caused the flinch is a fascinating question, and one which continues to occupy the minds of many. As with the euphoria and the heartbreak in sport, and the excellent, the inspirational, the ugly, the scandalous, the sweet and the funny, people are engrossed by the weird. This was heartbreak, ugly and weird all in one.

Kaylee McKeown. — Kaylee McKeown on the wall at the start of her 50m backstroke heat. Nine

Ariarne Titmus is among those wondering what caused the early movement.

“In a race, [before the beep goes off], if you make a slight movement, [if you see] a flash, you hear a noise, all the athletes would be asked to call down and they’d restart the race,” Titmus said on the Nine broadcast.

“So my question is: what did she see or hear to make her have that slight, little jolt?”

It’s a question McKeown isn’t comfortable answering.

“I knew [what caused the movement],” she told Cate Campbell on Nine after Monday night’s final.

“I knew straight away.

“But … I’m not really going to comment on it any further. It’s just what happens.”

Fielding questions from a bevy of reporters after the chat with Campbell, her lips remained sealed.

“Just simple — I got DQ’d, I got reinstated,” McKeown said.

Watch the 2025 Australian swimming trials live and free on Nine and 9Now, taking place from June 9-14.

One probing reporter asked if she had been “distracted by something”, hoping it would invite a more elaborative response.

“Yep, and that’s as far as I feel comfortable saying,” she replied.

“Things happen, and it just crumbled that way.

“I knew as soon as I started what I’d done.

“Thankfully we have the technology to look back at footage, and [we] saw the distraction and [I] got reinstated.”

In her direct line of sight was a photographer. He didn’t appear to distract. In her peripherals, on both sides of her as she clung to the block, were race officials. Nor did they appear to distract. Perhaps it was a light hanging from the ceiling, or the faintest of sounds.

“The official’s feet; you don’t know whether he had a slight, little movement in his toe,” pondered Titmus.

“There’s so many variables that she could have seen.

“Also, Kaylee wears glasses all the time; you don’t know what her visual is like when she’s in that set position.

“So only she is the one to know truly what made her have that little jolt.”

The McKeown disqualification set off plenty of chatter at the pool of that Ian Thorpe moment — for those who aren’t aware, the time the legendary swimmer fell off his block and in the pool at the Australian trials for the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Ian Thorpe waiting anxiously moments before he was told he was disqualified. Getty

Thorpe was the defending Olympic gold medallist in the 400m freestyle, and the event’s world record holder at the time, but in one freak moment in the 400m freestyle heats, his defence had blown up.

As the story goes, Thorpe did get the chance to defend his Olympic 400m title, and he proceeded to do so successfully in Athens, after Craig Stevens, the man who’d qualified instead of him, selflessly gave up his spot a month on.

The McKeown DQ wasn’t as major a moment as the Thorpe DQ, which is a bit like saying “Thorpedo” was a good swimmer, or he has big feet, or his first name is Ian.

But like the Thorpe DQ, people may still be talking about it 20 years on, albeit none the wiser as to what made the golden girl move.