Emma McKeon has broken her silence on an awkward mishap at the Melbourne Cup which saw her get completely soaked in champagne.
The Aussie swimming champion, 30, was left red-faced on Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse when she got drenched while trying to do G.H. Mumm’s iconic ‘tap tap moment’.
She tapped the three-litre jeroboam bottle with a sabre, only for the champagne to explode and completely soak her, rather than flying high into the air as expected.
Emma’s very lavish Christian Dior gown, which costs an estimated $10,000, was left covered with alcohol and flashed a shocked expression at the awkward gaffe.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at Marie Claire’s Women of the Year Awards in Sydney on Wednesday, Emma broke her silence on the unexpected mishap.
Proving she has a sense of humour, the Olympic swimming champion hilariously poked fun at her drenching with a tongue-in-cheek one-liner.
‘I guess I’m used to being wet, so it’s just different being wet with champagne rather than chlorine,’ she quipped.
Walking the red carpet with her boyfriend Cody Simpson, Emma also reflected on her success at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and shared her one regret.
Emma McKeon has broken her silence on an awkward mishap at the Melbourne Cup which saw her get completely soaked in champagne
While Emma took home the gold for Australia in the 4×100 freestyle relay, she admitted she would have loved to have also competed in the freestyle singles final.
She narrowly missed out on qualifying for the race in the Olympic Trials, with Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack instead securing the two Australian positions.
Reflecting on the Games, Emma shared: ‘Paris put on such an excellent Olympic Games, it’s such an iconic city so I really wanted to be part of that Olympics.
‘I probably wanted to be part of that 100m freestyle final in the race itself, but to be a part of that 4x100m relay, that has such a huge history and is such a special relay for Australia.
‘It’s kind of the relay to be a part of and that’s what lifts the standard for us every year. I felt very honoured and special to be a part of that.’
The swimming champion, 30, was left red-faced on Derby Day when she got drenched while trying to do G.H. Mumm’s iconic ‘tap tap moment’, and has now poked fun at the incident
Emma also reflected on her success at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and shared her one regret – that she wishes she had qualified for the freestyle singles final
Emma is now enjoying some downtime with her singer boyfriend Cody after the Olympics and said they are making the most of having time away from the ‘intensity’.
‘We’ve just had a holiday away in Europe for three weeks, so that was really nice to take the chance to switch off and take a breather from the high intensity, that was really nice,’ she said.
Emma and Cody went ‘Instagram official’ with their relationship in July 2022, three months after they began dating in secret.
Last year, the loved-up pair celebrated by buying their first home together.
The pair splashed out $1.826million on a family-sized Gold Coast home, proving their headline-making romance that flourished while training for the 2022 Commonwealth Games has become more serious.
Her comments came as she spoke to Daily Mail Australia at Marie Claire’s Women of the Year Awards in Sydney on Wednesday, where she stepped out with her boyfriend Cody Simpson
Cody has recently tried his hand at competitive swimming, but narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Olympics, though he avidly supported Emma’s success.
Despite missing out on the freestyle final in Paris, Emma still soared to huge acclaim at the Games and became Australia’s most decorated Olympian.
Emma won three Olympic medals at the Paris Games, taking home gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, silver in the 4x100m medley relay and bronze in the mixed 4x100m medley relay.
Her success means she has now collected 14 Olympic medals since 2016, bringing her Olympic career to an incredible close after she declared Paris would be her last.
