McKEE Anton

General
BREAK AND RETURN
He worked as a consultant at Ernst & Young in Boston, MA, United States of America, after graduating from the University of Alabama in 2017. He was out of the pool for seven months while working with Ernst & Young. In October 2019 he took leave from his job to prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and become a professional swimmer. "[Working at Ernst & Young] was an interesting experience and gave me a good insight into the American labour market. It also put a lot of pressure on my emotional life. I had trained and competed for the university team in previous years, where there was a lot of pressure to achieve the best results for the team, but gradually I lost my love in swimming and was unhappy in swimming and got fed up with it. I thought I was ready to quit swimming, but it only took me seven months to regain the passion. Suddenly I found how I really enjoyed training and competing in such a high level. I worked long hours, and went back training that was not meant to achieve maximum results in sports, but I was improving, and qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. It seemed unrealistic to me at first but I became aware of these new things; to enjoy swimming, consider it a privilege, success will follow." (LinkedIn profile, 01 Sep 2020; ruv.is, 21 Mar 2020; frettabladid.is, 08 Feb 2020; hafnfirdingur, 08 Jan 2020)

CHANGE OF EVENT
In the beginning of his swimming career he focused on the 1500m and 400m events. He switched to the 200m and 100m breaststroke when he joined the University of Alabama swimming team ahead of the 2013/14 collegiate season. "When I showed up on campus, two months later I was officially a breaststroker. It may well be that it helps me not to have been in the breaststroke longer than this [speaking in 2018]. I need to use different training methods and spend more time in the weight room, gaining more power that pays off, considering I'm not getting any younger. I think the foundation you had from swimming the longer distance, more and more experience from the breaststroke and increased strength, I think this is all coming together." (Inside with Brett Hawke YouTube channel, 21 Apr 2020; mbl.is, 10 Dec 2018; cnslocallife.com, 18 Jul 2018; rolltide.com, 01 Aug 2017)