Olympics-Swimming-Hunter becomes hunted as McKeown braces for charging Smith

By Ian Ransom

PARIS (Reuters) - Kaylee McKeown has ruled women's backstroke with an iron fist since dominating the Tokyo Olympics but a young American with a chip on her shoulder could derail the Australian's bid for greatness at Paris.

Regan Smith, a 22-year-old from Minnesota, will be by far the biggest threat to McKeown's quest to become the first female backstroker to achieve the Olympic "double-double" by successfully defending her 100 and 200 metres titles at La Defense Arena.

Rejuvenated under coach Bob Bowman, the man who developed Michael Phelps into a gold medal machine, Smith took McKeown's 100 metres world record at U.S. Olympic trials with a stunning swim of 57.13 seconds.

Coming weeks before Paris and right after McKeown fell just short of her former world record of 57.33 at Australia's trials, it was a powerful statement from a swimmer once seen as the United States' "next big thing".

It also marked Smith's return to the top of the world timesheets.

As a 17-year-old sensation, she had previously set the 100m and 200m world records during a stellar 2019 World Championships.

The early success proved a burden on Smith who gradually became crippled with self-doubt as her performance waned.

Though taking 100m bronze behind McKeown at the Tokyo Olympics, she failed to qualify for the 200m backstroke as world champion.

"I've always had like a God-given natural ability to swim backstroke but I just never believed in myself ever and that's always going to be a work-in-progress," she said last month.

Getting one up on McKeown, the 200m world record holder, will be the ultimate test of her self-belief.

While Smith is highly strung, 23-year-old McKeown has been a cold-blooded predator in the pool.

She mourned the death of her father a year before her Tokyo success and says she still "uses" the memory of him to push hardest to the wall in the last 50 metres of racing.

Like Smith with Bowman, McKeown also has a super-coach in her corner in the form of Michael Bohl, who has prepared Australian Olympic medallists at every Games since 2008.

For Bohl and McKeown, Smith's world record changes nothing.

"It was expected," Bohl told Reuters.

"Working with one of the world's greatest coaches, it was only a matter of time before she hit the improvement curve.

"There's a couple of tenths of a second between them so I think it's just going to come down to who can execute the best under pressure."

On that score, it's "advantage McKeown" at the Paris Games where the women's backstroke starts with the 100m heats from Monday.

The Australian has succeeded repeatedly on the biggest stages and beat Smith for the 50, 100 and 200m world titles at Fukuoka last year.

Though bungling the execution of her 100m race at Australia's trials last month, McKeown's winning time of 57.41 seconds was still the third fastest ever.

Bohl holds little doubt his swimmer has more pace within her.

He also feels records count for little when the swimmers are poised on the starting blocks before a final.

"Sometimes we see world records and unbelievable times, but the Olympics is a racing meet," he said.

"Once you're in the final, it's anyone's race. That's certainly the way Kaylee's going to be approaching it."

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Christian Radnedge)