McEvoy The History Maker As First Aussie Man To Swim At Four Olympics
Cameron McEvoy is a four-times Olympian, the first Australian male swimmer to make four Games, indeed: at the age of 30, his dominant 21.35 dash was followed by a 21.84 from Ben Armbruster, both men on the Dolphins squad for the 2024 Games.
McEvoy’s passage to Paris comes a year after he lifted the World title in 21.06 – a sensational comeback, one of the best ever. He was a fast finish shy of that today on day 3 at Brisbane Trials but any 21.3 swim makes the man a contender for the biggest prizes in his sport in any pool.
Closest to the top three were 100m backstroke winner at trials, Isaac Cooper, on 21.97, and, on 22.04, Kyle Chalmers, the 100m Olympic champion as a teen at Rio 2016 when the date did not go as intended for McEvoy.
Brisbane Results in full / Event Page
The Final Of The Day:
Back to the dash and eight years on, McEvoy and Chalmers will arrive in Paris contenders once more, albeit in different events.
Nicole Jeffery takes up the story from Brisbane, where McEvoy said:
“Eighteen months ago, my goal was to just come back, give this new training approach a go, see what happens, and if I can maybe go under 22 again, I’d be over the moon with that. So what I’ve done so far is just obliterated any expectations I had.
“And I guess with that, I’m most excited to kind of get this done and then just like compile what I’ve learned and just push it out there into the public I know there’s a tremendous amount of swimmers who had been in my position, currently are in my position, who would want to learn from that; a lot of coaches want to learn from that and I think it can provide a lot of good to a lot of athletes who love the sport, but they’re not quite on the right path in terms of the type of training and the philosophy and everything.
“So yeah, looking past Paris, I’m very excited to do my best to try and help people out that way.”
Cameron McEvoy – Photo – victorious in Fukuoka, by Patrick B. Kraemer / MAGICPBK
Asked if he would be chasing a medal in Paris, McEvoy replied: “For sure. Excluding the World Champs in February, that puts me ranked second in the world behind Ben Proud who did 21.25 at their [Great Britain] trials. So that definitely puts me in the hotspot for potential metal. I’ve been extremely consistent in the low 21s. I think that’s ten sub 21.5swims in the last year. And 21.5 has medalled every Olympics so if I can keep that consistency level, navigate the environment that is the Olympics, then yeah, anything’s possible.
What does it mean to become the first Australian man to four Olympics (in swimming)?
“It’s special because you could almost fill a book with legendary Aussie male names in the sport. And so, yeah, to have the privilege of having that title under my belt and having that type of longevity, I think ultimately, it just makes me proud because it shines a light on the persistence and perseverance that I’ve had over the last, well it’s a career, but particularly over the last seven years. And so yeah, I’m really proud to wear that. I’ll try and do my best to honour it over in Paris and we’ll see what happens. “
Cameron McEvoy – Photo by Patrick B. Kraemer / MAGICPBK
A man with a mind fit to fathom the spacetime continuum, McEvoy was asked if there had been any technical changes to his prep for Paris:
So the biggest thing for me was my dive which is effectively the time to the 15m mark. My best prior to coming back to this was a 5.5 seconds now in 5.1. So literally from a jump, couple underwater kicks and four strokes I’m already almost half a second quicker, which is insane in a 50 freestyle.
“So that was the main one we had to nail and then the rest of it was just strength within the stroke, not brute strength, in the sense of the actual technique I’m doing in the water in the race, just trying to load that up with as much weight as I can without destroying that technique, which we’ve gone down a lot of rabbit holes in that sense and we’ve probably uncovered quite a few novel things for the sport, which again, we’ve kept close to ourselves, but we’re keen to put out there post Paris.
“I’ve probably done close to 1000 dive-suited race replications since 18 months ago, so you get that much on your belt… I think of it like a gymnast who, say they have a rings routine. It’s very technical, very demanding strength-wise and they have to train that really precisely and they just spend hours and hours doing that. Very similar.
“Most of my training is what I’m trying to do in the race. and so by the time I get up and race, it’s very second nature. I can try to switch off that cognitive side of my mind and just let everything flow with how I trained it.”
Cameron McEvoy – Photo by Patrick B. Kraemer / MAGICPBK
Armbruster’s Surprise
Where he had targeted the dash with singular focus, Ben Armbruster was a little stunned to find himself on the team for the 50m free. He said: “50 free wasn’t even in my mind. I train for the 100 fly. Everything that helped me do that was just all the hard work on skills and whatnot.
“So that’s what I really relied on tonight, just that skill over the first 15 (metres) and my good underwaters. I relied on that it it paid off. 50 free was a race just to get me in, get the nerves down and help me relax.”
He’d been dreaming of becoming an Olympian since he learned to swim at 4-years-old. That’s 18 years ago. What did it feel like to live the dream?
“It took me a second to be able to read the board, because everything was a blur,” he replied. “I looked up and all I saw was a 2 next to my name and I looked across to make sure of the time and it’s a blur after that. I don’t remember because I was just so happy and I know slapped the water and just lost it. I knew I was gonna be able to control myself if I made it.”
Armbruster grew up in Stanthorpe and moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2021 to train with Chris Mooney, who at the time was coaching Kaylee McKeown to her first soaring Olympic success story in Tokyo.
Says Armbruster: “That’s where I met Kaylee and where I really learned about professionalism in and around the pool.”
In other finals:
Men’s 800m freestyle – Winnington Wins Inside The Cut
The Paris cut set at 7:45.80, Elijah Winnington‘s 7:44.90 made the grade. He was shadowed all the way by sparing partner Sam Short, who finished just beyond the cut in 7:46.52 but is already on the team and is likely to be named for all his key events.
It emerged today that Short, who went stroke-for-stroke with Winnington in the 400m on day 1, had been dealing with a gastric infection in the weeks leading into the trials and was not at his best in Brisbane. Third place went to Matthew Galea in 7:53.99.
Winnington said: “Sam’s (Short) not quite at his best. He’s had a pretty rough couple of weeks … six weeks time is a very different story. I knew it was going to be a battle out there, but I wanted to stick to my guns and really follow on from what I’ve been doing in the heat of this meet. It’s just really go out after it.”
Men’s 200m Medley multi-class: Hodge Sets Para World Record
Tim Hodge (S9) broke the world record in the men’s 200m individual medley multi-class. With the crowd back on its feet, Hodge hit the wall in 2:12.03.
Hodge, who is now set to line up at his third Paralympic Games, has won all major titles in the sport except that illusive Paralympic Gold.
“To win Paralympic gold, it would be a lifetime achievement,” he said. “I’m lucky enough to say that I’ve achieved every major gold medal in my sport to date and then world record too. So the only thing that’s really, really missing is Paralympic gold,” Hodge said.
“If I can achieve that this year, that will be the ultimate accomplishment and I can feel confident that if my career was to end anytime tomorrow, I’d be satisfied.”
Men’s 200m Butterfly: Gough Triumphs But Paris Cut Far Ahead
Bowen Gough took the 200 ‘fly in 1:56.18, off a 54.60 at halfway. That Paris cut was set at 1:54.97. Closet to Gough was Harrison Turner, in 1:57.07.