sport news How Emma McKeon uses the power of 'a good old cry' to overcome pressure and ... trends now
Aussie swimming champion Emma McKeon has revealed the secret to dominating the pool at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games while managing the searing spotlight on her past and present relationships - a good old cry.
The new queen of the pool has been breathtaking in Birmingham, with her 20 medals earned in the pool a Commonwealth Games record and two clear of her nearest rival.
She also has 11 Olympic medals, five of them gold, to assert herself as the genuine GOAT of the pool at all levels for Australian swimmers.
The relationship between McKeon and Simpson has been under the spotlight just as much as the Aussies performance in the pool at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games
But her feats in Birmingham have come under intense scrutiny of her current relationship with fellow Team Australia swimmer and former pop star Cody Simpson, her former boyfriend and Commonwealth Games swimmer Kyle Chalmers and reports of a tense love triangle that just won't quit.
Each member of the trio has reacted differently.
Simpson has elected to flat bat questions with the patient guile of Bill Lawry in his Test cricket prime. Chalmers has exploded at the media and threatened to quit the sport altogether.
McKeon? While publicly she chosen to speak only about her feats in the pool, privately she admits that there have been many tears before lifting herself up to compete.
'It was obviously a pretty tough week. There were lots of good parts to it. Obviously sharing it with [partner] Cody [Simpson] and having both my parents in the stands every time I raced. That was special because they couldn't be in Tokyo,' she told News Corp.
'There were so many amazing parts of the week but yes, there were tough parts as well. I'll say it's been a rollercoaster of emotions.'
There were reports of tension between McKeon and Chalmers when they swum together in the same relay team, claims that were hotly denied by Chalmers
She adds: 'You try to stay stable through the course of a week as big as this one, but the emotions can build up and I do let them out.
'You can't try to be a robot. I'm not a robot. You try to keep yourself together as much as you can, but yeah, there's times when I just let it
