There are a lot of Australians bemoaning the 2026 Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow instead of regional Victoria, but don’t make the mistake of thinking Iona Anderson is one of them.
Anderson emerged as Australia’s biggest backstroke star of these Games when undisputed queen Kaylee McKeown withdrew due to glandular fever.
In the 200m, she finished sixth, over two seconds slower than the time she swam at the Australian trials in June.
But in the 100m, she touched first and it could not have been a better place for her first individual gold medal at a senior meet, storming past Canadian veteran and nine-time Commonwealth medallist Kylie Masse.
Anderson got it done in the home of her forebears, if not herself, welcoming the controversial late change to the Scottish capital.
“Personally, for me, I think Glasgow’s better than Victoria. Sorry,” she laughed.
“I love the Scottish. I’ve got quite a few friends here and obviously my family. So it was great to come back here and do it.”
Basically her entire family is from Scotland, Grangemouth on her mum’s side and Dumfries and Galloway on her dad’s.
Anderson was even named after the small island of Iona off the west coast of the country.
As she took her victory lap, the 20-year-old found her grandma Pam, who had been riding every drop of water displaced by Anderson’s furious charge home.
“She was pretty emotional, there wasn’t many words,” she said.
“She’s just really happy and stoked for me. She’s always messaging me and always giving me good luck wishes, so that was really special to see her after the race.”
The victory was comfortably the tightest of the night by any of the Australian swimmers as the Dolphins took home five more golds and 14 medals in total.
Cam McEvoy completed the full set of 50m freestyle titles by adding Commonwealth gold to Olympic and world titles, baton bearer Tim Hodge enjoyed another moment in the sun with gold in the 100m backstroke S9, Kai Taylor swam a glorious final leg to win the men’s 4x200m relay, and Lani Pallister romped home in the women’s 1,500m final for her second gold of the Games with the 200m and 800m to come.
Her victory gap of almost 18 seconds was 299 times bigger than Anderson’s 0.06 margin over Masse.
A teenage Iona Anderson finished fifth as Kaylee McKeown completed the third leg of her double-double in Paris. (Getty Images: Maddie Meyer)
“I kept my blinders on so I’m really happy I got my hand on the wall,” Anderson said.
“I could see some splashes, but to be honest, I closed my eyes at the end and hoped for the best.”
The difficulty for Anderson is the spectre of McKeown.
The 25-year-old’s double-double – winning the 100m and 200m backstroke at successive Olympics – has raised the bar for how greatness is defined in that discipline for the entire swimming world.
Perhaps that is why Anderson’s distant finish in the longer race did not stay with her too long.
“I know I’m capable of more in the 200m but I’ve got to take away the positive that that’s my third best swim ever,” she said.
“I really just picked myself up and moved on.”
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