Cameron McEvoy’s rise to Olympic champion in Paris inspired by training overhaul

At the crossroads after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Australian swimmer Cameron McEvoy was content with anything but swimming back and forth in a pool.

An individual Olympic gold medal had so far eluded the Queenslander – then 27 years old – and it seemed as if the dream of standing on the top podium would remain forever out of reach.

But while he was busy with activities such as rock climbing, McEvoy began to think about how to revive his career.

During this period, McEvoy developed his long-standing curiosity for a different approach and a departure from the conventional approach to training sprinters.

“As long as I can remember I’ve had ideas about how I could do other things in training,” McEvoy told ABC TV’s Offsiders.

“I’ve always been curious about what you do, why you do it and where it takes you.

“It wasn’t until after Tokyo, when I didn’t want to stare at a swimming pool endlessly, that I really went out and followed what interested me.

“That led to rock climbing, fitness and general strength training, and spending time in that space.

“Over time, without even consciously doing it, I always tried to contextualize what I had learned and think, ‘Okay, if I take that and put it in the water, what would that look like for training and how might that impact things?’

“It built up to a point where on paper it made sense to try and see where it would take me.”

McEvoy’s plan to overhaul his training was one thing.

But another challenge he had to overcome was finding a coach who supported his theories.

“Before I started looking for a place to do this, I put together a few documents to summarize my thoughts,” McEvoy said.

“I sent them out for feedback. The feedback was, ‘It’s interesting, but there’s no space to do this.’

“That’s understandable. There are set ways of doing things. It’s hard to balance that with one person. I understand where they were coming from.”

Around this time, former Australian representative Robert Hurley put McEvoy in touch with swimming coach Tim Lane.

“I contacted him (Lane) in Sydney, at the Pullman Hotel outside the airport, in mid to late 2022,” McEvoy said.

“We met there. We actually had a conversation and the starting point had nothing to do with the World Championships and the Olympic Games and times.

“I was at a point in my career where I had to choose: move on, be proud of what I’ve done or just try.

“The only thing Tim really wanted to achieve was that at the end of this journey or this process I would have a better connection to the sport than I did at that point.

“That’s where it started. I don’t think you could have had a better starting point for what we’ve done over the last two years.”

‘It was all in my head’

The core of McEvoy’s vision was to swim fewer miles in the pool and spend more time applying training techniques on land.

After building his reputation in the 100m freestyle, he turned to the 50m to test his methods.

McEvoy and Lane were confident they knew what they were doing and over time others joined, including Australian head coach Rohan Taylor.

“I couldn’t explain what I was doing, it was all in my head,” McEvoy said.

“Tim and I were through it. But other than that, he (Taylor) just said, ‘Okay, whatever you do, I’m intrigued. I’m interested. I’m giving you the space to do this. Go ahead and see where it goes.'”

Those who doubted McEvoy were likely convinced his training program was valuable when he won gold in the 50m freestyle at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.

The silver medal at the world titles in Doha in February last year only confirmed that McEvoy was on the right track in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Paris.

The rest is history as McEvoy finally broke through and won gold at his fourth Olympic Games.

McEvoy admits he had never cheered like that before when he hit the wall in the 50m freestyle final in Paris.

He took no time to publicly silence those who questioned his training.

Instead, McEvoy paid tribute to his supporters, particularly Lane.

“I’ve never celebrated like that after a race. I’m usually reserved,” McEvoy said.

“I stood on the rope, hit my chest and pointed at Tim. (It was) awesome.”