Australian swimming star Kaylee McKeown took double Olympic gold in Paris last summer. Now she is skipping upcoming World Cup competitions in Asia to focus on her well-being.
"I'm putting my mental health first and have decided to end this experience early. As an athlete, it's so important to listen to your heart and know when it's enough", she writes on Instagram after swimming during the first competition day in Shanghai on Friday.
McKeown has taken gold on 100 and 200 meter backstroke in two consecutive Olympic Games. In Tokyo three years ago, she also took an Olympic gold in the relay.
The World Cup competitions in Shanghai offered a world record in the men's 50 meter butterfly, short course, when Swiss Noè Ponti swam in 21.67. It was eight hundredths of a second faster than the previous record shared by Nicholas Santos and Szebasztian Szabo.
