Just when you thought life couldn’t get any more exciting for our home-grown Olympic ‘Golden Girl’, Emma McKeon, it absolutely does.
What a week she is having. First though, let’s quickly recap Emma’s year to date.
In January, Australia’s most decorated Olympian added the prestigious award of Young Australian of the Year to her impressive list of achievements. Next, on her 30th birthday, came a prestigious role as Ambassador for luxury design and fashion house, Dior. Dior said the partnership reflected the luxury brand’s admiration of sporting values such as discipline, perseverance – and most of all, going beyond limits.
The Paris Olympics saw Emma add more gold, silver and bronze medals to her record tally of 14 medals, and in the process passing Ian Thorpe by achieving her sixth Olympic gold. She now ranks seventh in the world for her incredible haul of medals at three Olympics.
Just a few weeks ago, Emma was back in her home town for what she described as a ‘pinch me moment” when a stunning new landscaped area above North Wollongong Beach was named in her honour.
Last night, an excited Emma was back in Europe, declaring on Instagram: “A dream day in Paris for my first fashion show for @dior.” This wasn’t just any fashion show, Emma was stepping out at the famous Paris Fashion Week.
And it doesn’t stop there – Emma now finds herself on the front cover of the October edition of the glossy Harper’s Bazaar Australia magazine that hits newsstands today.
The Bazaar photo shoot is simply stunning, capturing a radiant Emma close to nature and her Wollongong home in the rolling green hills of Gerringong. The striking fashion has a definite Scottish highlands flavour. Who knows, Emma might get another ambassadorship offer from Kiama Tourism.
On Instagram, Bazaar Australia said, “In a rare moment of quiet, she returned to her roots on the NSW South Coast to shoot this cover ahead of the upcoming challenge: blending into something more like normal life."
“I suppose there’s definitely a decision to make,” Emma says of her future, “but I think…swimming has given me so much and I still love it. And that’s how I always want to feel about swimming.”
Emma McKeon may have retired from competitive swimming but there’s no doubt this remarkable young woman is showing no signs of slowing down, and wherever she is, and whatever she does, she is always doing Wollongong and the Illawarra proud.
Watch the Bazaar Australia video on Instagram