How Fast Can He Go ? World Beating Cam McEvoy Unveils Plans To Swim Faster As He Plots To Swim On To Brisbane 2032
The world’s fastest swimmer, Australian sprint king Cam McEvoy, has claimed in Brisbane today that if it’s not broken, then don’t fix it.
A week after the 31-year-old clocked a sizzling 50-meter freestyle world record of 20.88, McEvoy says he’s even more excited and determined to see where he can take it now.
“I’m still processing it,” McEvoy told a press conference called by Swimming Australia upon his arrival home from the China Open.
“That was more of a target for the end of the season, so to have hit it in March is really special. It’s also been definitely a long-term thing, so to finally hit it, I’m still pinching myself.
“I’ve always been asked, like the age-old question is: do you want an Olympic gold medal or world record? I always said, world record, and this was the one I didn’t have. So, yeah, to finally have that is very special.”
And although tempted, McEvoy is not going to change his training routine.
“The way I split this season up was I had an off-season, which was mainly strength development, and I’ve barely done much swimming since the world champs last year up until this comp.”
“This comp was meant to be the transition going into more of a sprint-focused regime. But because I got the world record and I’ve made steps, the idea is kind of just to double down on this and not change it.
“See how far this can actually take me, and then go from there.
“It is, surprisingly, a little bit more leaning into the extreme side of things, even with respect to what I’ve already been doing.
“I’m going to lean into continuing the strength of development in the gym and not really increasing the amount of sprinting I do in the water, whereas in the past, this time of year, I’d be upping that type of volume.
“I’m pretty excited to see where that goes.”
And McEvoy has confirmed he would love nothing more than to line up in a sixth Olympics in his home town Brisbane in 2032 – after a fifth LA28 Games in Los Angeles.
“To swim in Brisbane at a home Games in 2032 is certainly on the radar,” said McEvoy, who was also quick to weigh in on the fact that compared to The Enhanced Games his world record earned him zero dollars.
“It’s crazy to think that to get a world record without a suit and without any performance-enhancing drugs, as a clean athlete, the bonus is $0, whereas if I went an easier route … you get not only a $US1 million bonus — $1.5 million Australian — but there’s also $US250,000 prize money for first place, which you would get on top of the world record.
“The stark contrast is massive — we’re talking on the order of $2 million plus compared to zero dollars. And the zero dollars pathway is the much harder pathway to do something like this as well.
“It’s pretty ludicrous. It’s a bit unfortunate that this pathway has $0, and the value placed on something like this then is something that is, at least deemed from that perspective, worth nothing in that respect.
“So, yeah, I’m dumbfounded in terms of the stark contrast that exists currently in the landscape of sport in swimming.
“The China Open had no world record incentive so, yeah, with this world record, I got $0 for that.”
Las Vegas will host the Enhanced Games in May.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev clocked 20.89 seconds wearing a now-banned super suit — as part of a time trial in North Carolina in February last year.