Kaylee McKeown's rival escapes disqualification for 'blatant' rules breach at Paris Olympics

Australian swimming superstar Kaylee McKeown will feel almightily hard done by if her 200m backstroke rival Honey Osrin upsets her in the final on Saturday morning (AEDT) after officials inexplicably missed her breaking the rules in the semi-final. Just days after Great Britain’s Luke Greenbreak was disqualified from the 200m backstroke heats for failing to surface within 15m after final turn, his UK compatriot escaped the same fate despite her offence being arguably more blatant.

At the start of the race and after each turn competitors must breach the surface before the 15m mark - with a red marker on the lane rope marking that point. However, live footage from the 200m backstroke semi showed Osrin went well past that mark, with the overhead angle proving she was more than a metre past that point when she surfaced.

McKeown, who was in the same heat, was well into her fourth stroke by the time Osrin had emerged to begin her first. And it wasn't like attention wasn't on the 15m mark after Greenbank's disqualification the day prior. Attention was instead on the Aussie's surfacing at the start, with Giann Rooney commenting on Titmus' breach on Channel 9's broadcast: “Timed to perfection, just up before that 15m mark".

Osrin went on to swim a personal best time of 2:07.84, qualifying third fastest for the final, which McKeown is favourite to take out. And eagle-eyed fans who spotted her rules breach flooded social media to ask how officials missed the 'blatant' offence, demanding France’s Emma Terebo - who had the ninth fastest time - to be promoted to the final in her place.

“How did Lane 3 not get DQ’d here?” University of Tampa assistant swim coach Phil Murray wrote on X. To which Sports Illustrated journalist Pat Forde replied: "Why do we even have 15m judges if they’re going to let something this blatant slide? Honey Osrin is the third seed for the final in this. She should be DQ’d."

Kaylee McKeown aiming to defend backstroke golds

In the 100m backstroke final earlier on the Olympic program, McKeown harnessed the spirit of her deceased dad to collect an Olympic gold, defending her Tokyo title. But she was not in the mood for too much celebration, immediately setting her sights on winning more golds in Paris. McKeown became just the second woman to win consecutive Olympic 100m backstroke gold medals with a stirring Tuesday night triumph.

The Aussie joins American Natalie Coughlin (2004, 2008) as the only woman to successfully defend Olympic 100m backstroke titles and is hoping to do the double and hold on to her 200m crown on Saturday morning. "I have a little bit of a superpower and that's my Dad ... I know that he's here in spirit," she said after winning the 100m backstroke gold.

McKeown won in an Olympic record time of 57.33 seconds with Smith taking silver in 57.66. "I knew it would come down to that last 25 metres," McKeown said.

"It's something that I've been practising for and it's something that the Americans and myself are really good at, finishing our races strong. So it was going to be whoever had it in that last five, 10 metres."

After also winning the 200m in Tokyo McKeown will attempt to achieve the incredible feat of going back-to-back in the 100m and 200m backstroke but the Aussie is taking it one race at a time. "It's one race at a time and I've ticked off three boxes so far," she said, referring to her 100m backstroke heat, semi-final and final swims.

"There's a few more to go hopefully. It's just a matter of ... step by step."