‘We wanted it so badly’: Just like mum Hayley Lewis, Kai Taylor is now an Olympian (2024)

Australian swimming great Hayley Lewis represented her country at three Olympics but said she had never experienced anything like the anguish of watching her son try to follow in her footsteps.

As times flashed up on the board after the men’s 200m freestyle final on Tuesday night at the Australian swimming trials, Lewis and husband Greg Taylor had a moment to themselves at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre.

Their son, Kai Taylor, had achieved what Lewis did 32 years earlier. He’d qualified for his maiden Olympics.

“We were just in shock,” Lewis, a two-time Olympic medallist and 200m freestyle world champion, told this masthead. “I don’t think I’ve been as emotional in my entire life as I have been in the last month. We knew he had the potential.

“I’m getting upset now [pauses] … just knowing how hard he’s worked. We just wanted it so badly for him. I just thought, ‘Thank god that’s over’.”

A fourth-place finish secured a spot on Australia’s relay team for Taylor at the Olympics in Paris next month.

For two years, comparisons between Taylor and his mother were inevitable given she is one of Australia’s best-known swimmers.

They are just the second mother-son duo to represent Australia in swimming at an Olympics after Edna Davey and Graham Hamilton (1928 and 1956).

According to Nine’s Olympic stats expert David Clark, Australian swimming has had a father and son Olympic combination (Ron McKeon and David McKeon), a couple of fathers and daughters (Robbie Nay and Meagen Nay, Ron McKeon and Emma McKeon) as well as a mother and daughter duo (Lyn McClements and Jacqueline McKenzie).

Last year, a video of Lewis celebrating wildly went viral after Taylor won his 200m freestyle final to qualify for his first Australian team at the world championships in Japan.

One of the country’s most promising freestyle prospects, Taylor has made steady improvements and was part of Australia’s gold medal-winning 4x100m freestyle team at the championships in July.

Lewis knows better than anyone that Olympic trials are brutal because there is no second chance. Although Taylor’s 200m freestyle time of 1:46.26 was outside his best of 1:45.79, an Olympic berth was all he cared about.

“To get fourth place, I’m unbelievably stoked with that,” Taylor said. “It was just my goal to get on the team. I was a little bit disappointed with the time, but I know I’m capable of a lot more.

“The family were just over the moon. For Mum especially, it was quite a big thing for her. To have me on the Olympic team, she is stoked. She had a few tears. That’s just Mum.”

Lewis gave birth to her first son, Jacob, in 1998. She announced her swimming comeback and qualified for Sydney 2000.

She is the last mother to represent Australia in swimming at the Olympics.

“It’s more difficult being a mum,” Lewis said. “Kai said this morning, ‘I feel so drained’. I told him the Olympic trials is the hardest thing you’ll do in your whole life.

“You’re there as a mum to hug them if they do well and hug them if they’re sad. We’ve definitely been on both of those sides with Kai. As a swimmer, you’re on a rollercoaster ride of emotions.”

Hayley and Greg were in the stands in f*ckuoka last year to watch Taylor at his maiden international competition. They booked tickets to Paris in anticipation of good news at the trials.

“Kai knew we could cancel everything though [if he didn’t make the team]. We weren’t going to go if he wasn’t going,” Lewis said.

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Taylor could still snare a spot in an individual Olympic race in Paris if he finishes in the top two of the men’s 100m freestyle on Thursday and goes under the qualifying time of 48.06.

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2024 Australian swimming trials; exclusive, live and free on Channel Nine and 9Now from Monday June 10. Finals start at 7.30pm AEST each night.