David's Story
David McKeon competed at his first Olympic Games in London having only been in the sport for three years. He went on to finish fifth in his heat of the 400m freestyle at the London 2012 Games before swimming in the heats of the 4 x 200m freestyle relay that would go on and finish fifth in the final.
Four years later he qualified for the Rio Olympics with a strong performance in the 400m freestyle (3:45.09) on the first night of the 2016 Nationals, where he finished behind a flying Mack Horton. He was also third in the 200m final to secure a Rio relay spot. After Cameron McEvoy withdrew from competing in the 200m freestyle he was also confirmed in that individual event.
McKeon just missed out on a medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Combining with Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Dan Smith and Mack Horton to finish fourth, an agonising 0.68 outside the medal positions with a total time of 7:04.18.
In his individual events, McKeon placed seventh in the final of the 400m freestyle, with teammate Horton claiming gold. McKeon also finished eight in his heat of the 200m freestyle.
McKeon comes from rich swimming pedigree. His father Ron swam at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games and won four Commonwealth Games gold medals. His mother Susie was a Commonwealth Games swimmer and her brother, Rob Woodhouse, swam at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, winning bronze in Los Angeles. David’s sister Emma competed at the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010 and went on to claim four medals at the Rio 2016 Games.
