Kaylee McKeown sweeps backstroke gold; Regan Smith takes silver

NANTERRE, France — Australian star Kaylee McKeown swept the women’s backstroke events at the Olympics for the second straight Games, winning Friday’s 200-meter backstroke final with a time of 2:03.73, an Olympic record.

She also won the women’s 100-meter backstroke — she finished ahead of Team USA’s Regan Smith with silver — earlier this week and was golden in both events three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Smith finished second to win silver with a 2:04.26 race, while Canadian Kylie Masse was fast enough for bronze. 

In Thursday’s semifinals, two-time Olympian Phoebe Bacon was the top qualifier, .25 seconds ahead of McKeown and .52 seconds faster than Great Britain’s Honey Osrin in third. Smith, 22, qualified sixth in the semi, which was about an hour after her silver medal-winning performance in the women’s 200-meter butterfly.

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