Emma McKeon is in 'a class of her own' above Australia's swimming greats, former Olympics champion Cate Campbell has declared.
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On Sunday morning, McKeon joined Ian Thorpe, Leisel Jones and Susie O'Neill as the most successful Commonwealth Games athletes, after anchoring the women's 4x100m freestyle gold in Birmingham.
McKeon could well move past them after the 50m freestyle final at 5.05am on Monday, a title she won at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
While McKeon may have had doubts about continuing on to this Commonwealth Games and possibly the Paris Olympics in 2024, Campbell said the understated 28-year-old from Wollongong deserves to be Australia's greatest.
"We've only just begun to see what Emma is capable of," Campbell said as part of the Channel Seven broadcast.
"She has many, many races still to swim and she is firm favourite in a lot of them.
"She really is just a class of her own and it's been so wonderful watching her come back to the sport, she opened up recently and said she wasn't sure if she wanted to swim on after Tokyo.
"And she's back in it, she's loving it and I've never seen her so relaxed and she's someone who just lights up the pool deck every time she steps on it."
It was Campbell who said "I'm so proud of you" in the pool while embracing moments after winning McKeon's breakthrough individual Olympics gold in the 100m freestyle last year.
McKeon is already the greatest medal winner in Australian Olympic history - surpassing Thorpe and Jones - and the first Australian ever to win four golds at a single Games at Tokyo last year.
Just 0.02 of a second stopped McKeon from already claiming a record-breaking 11th Commonwealth Games gold on Sunday, after being touched out by Canadian Olympics champion Maddie MacNeil in the 100m butterfly final.
A flawless turn proved the difference for MacNeil, who held off McKeon in the final strokes.
But a 10th gold was secured when Madison Wilson, Shayna Jack, Mollie O'Callaghan and McKeon dominated the freestyle relay. She opened the campaign by winning the 4x100m mixed relay gold with William Yang, Kyle Chalmers and Mollie O'Callaghan.
But the triumph came amid scrutiny about the team dynamic and her relationship with pop star turned swimmer Cody Simpson, while also competing with former partner Chalmers.
Chalmers was accused of not congratulating McKeon after the win and keeping his distance during the medal celebrations.
"If you watch the race back I actually walk up and say good job across the pool," he said on Sunday. McKeon agreed, saying "He did".
With a gold and silver in her pocket, McKeon still has seven more races to cement her Games legacy.
"It's nice to do that 10th one in a relay," she told Seven. "It's been over a long time and my first one was 2014 and I was so young and looking back on who I was back then, I feel like I've come a long way.
"I'm really proud of what I've done, but also really proud of how I've grown as a person and I think they're the kind of things you take with you, when you finish swimming."
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