Emma McKeon with Bronte Baratt after winning the gold medal in the freestyle relay (image from Emma’s Instagram)

By NATALIA HAWK

Tomorrow is the last day of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Everything will come to an official wrap on Sunday the 3rd of August, after 11 days of competition across 22 sports.

And so far, our Aussies have been absolutely killing it.

We’ve currently managed to win 40 gold medals, 40 silver and 44 bronze. For the mathematically challenged amongst us, that’s 124 all up – which puts us in second place out of the medal tally, right behind England.

One of the major contributors to  these medal wins is 20-year-old Emma McKeon from Wollongong. She’s one of our Aussie swimmers, and pegged by experts to be the Next Big Thing in the swimming world.

During the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Emma competed in six events, and won herself six medals – four gold, two bronze. Along with the rest of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, she also managed to break a world record.

And it’s only her first Commonwealth Games.

It makes sense that Emma has done so well – after all, swimming is in her blood. Her brother, David McKeon, is also on the Australian swim team and also competing at the same Commonwealth Games – so far, he’s won a silver medal in the 400m relay. The McKeon parents have both been on the Australian swim team and have swum in the Olympics and at the Commonwealth Games; they now own a swim school and Emma’s dad, Ron, coaches her.

Before she headed off to the Games, I sat down with Emma and she told me a bit about her swimming history – and what it’s like to grow up in a family that is so involved with swimming.

Here is Emma’s story:

Keep an eye on Emma. We can’t wait to see what she does from here.

And in other sports news from the week…

– Eric Hollingsworth, head coach of Athletics Australia, has been suspended and is set to be sent home from the Commonwealth Games after he criticised athletics superstar Sally Pearson. Pearson and Hollingsworth have butted heads since March, when he criticised her performance after she won silver during a race in Poland.

Earlier this week, Hollingsworth posted a media release which defended some of his actions towards Pearson in the past. He also wrote that Pearson set ” a bad example to the entire team” by opting to take a race in London rather than taking part in the team camp ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

David Grace QC, the President of Athletics Australia, followed up with a statement confirming that Hollingsworth had been suspended: “Athletics Australia is bitterly disappointed that Eric Hollingsworth has chosen to make a statement to the media when our focus should be on wholly on supporting our athletes’ performance… He acted without the authority of Athletics Australia and in contravention of the specific instructions of the chief executive officer.”

Have you seen anything in the sporting world or in the Commonwealth Games that you’d like to talk about?