Emma
McKeon AM

Born and raised in Wollongong in New South Wales, Emma grew up one of three children with brother David and sister Kaitlin. Emma comes from a family with rich swimming pedigree, with both her parents Ron and Susie, and uncle Rob, representing Australia and winning medals across numerous Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

With swimming in her veins, Emma took to the pool from an early age. 2010 saw Emma’s international breakthrough at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, Youth Olympics and World Short Course Championships, collecting one gold, and multiple silver and bronze medals across several events.

After narrowly missing out on Australian selection to the 2012 London Olympics, Emma cemented her spot in the team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Emma won four golds and two bronze medals, throwing herself into the Australian sporting spotlight as one of Australia’s best swimmers.

Qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics, Emma shared her experience with brother David who also swam at a national level. It was in Rio Emma was part of Australia’s all-conquering 4x100m Freestyle relay team that won gold and set a new world record.

Swimming in two more relays, Emma secured a further two silver medals. She claimed her first individual medal in the 200m freestyle – a bronze – and finished as Australia’s most successful Olympian at the Rio Games.

Emma performed exceptionally well at her home Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018, with three individual medals to accompany her three relay golds.

In 2019, Emma demonstrated her class once again with three golds, two silvers and one bronze medal at the World Championships.

In the inaugural International Swimming League (ISL), Emma represented the London Roar, finishing third overall in the race for MVP.

By the time the 2020 Tokyo Olympics arrived, Emma had cemented herself as one of the worlds best swimmers. Competing in freestyle, butterfly, and relays, Emma faced the prospect of swimming for seven Olympic medals.

Nine days later, she finished the swim meet with just that: Four golds and three bronze.

Her gold medals came in Olympic Record time in the 100m and 50m freestyle and the medley relay. She was also part of the World Record 4×100 freestyle relay team.

Emma’s bronze medals came in the 100m butterfly, 4×200 freestyle relay, and the mixed medley relay.

The Tokyo Olympics saw history be made on many levels. Emma became the most decorated Australian Olympian ever with a combined five gold, two silver, and four bronze medals – 11 medals in total.

She became the most successful Australian athlete at a single Olympics, and the only female in the world, across all sports, to win seven medals at one Olympics.

Backing up with the 2022 Commonwealth Games a year later, Emma became the most successful Commonwealth Games athlete; with 8 medals taking her overall tally to 20, and cementing her as the greatest of all time.

In 2024, Emma was awarded the honour of being named the 2024 Young Australian of the Year, after being named the Queensland Young Australian of the Year in late 2023.

Now settled into life on the Gold Coast, Emma trains at Griffith University with long term coach Michael Bohl.

Emma recently completed a Bachelor of Public Health at Griffith University complimenting her passion in global health issues. Following on from her studies Emma is a UNICEF supporter.

In her spare time, Emma enjoys good coffee, days at the beach, skiing and heading back to her home town Wollongong to spend time with friends and family.

Emma has been a brand ambassador of Speedo since a young age. She is also a part of the Nike and Coca Cola global brand ambassador teams, along with luxury watch brand IWC.