The oldest member of the Australian team claimed his first World Aquatics Championships title, winning the Men’s 50m Freestyle in Fukuoka in a time of 21.06, ahead of the United States of America’s Jack Alexy (21.57) and Great Britain’s Ben Proud (21.58).
When Cameron McEvoy touched the wall first to claim the world title in the Men’s 50m Freestyle this evening, it broke a drought in Australian men’s swimming dating back to the very first World Aquatics Championships in 1973.
In the nineteen editions that preceded these Fukuoka championships, not one Australian male has ever finished first in the quickest event on the cards. In fact, no Australian male has ever won Olympic gold in the 50m Freestyle either – an odd anomaly for a country that has been so dominant in the pool for such an extended period of time.
For McEvoy, it was a fitting result for a swimmer that has reinvented himself over the past twelve months. The Queensland-based swimmer has bulked up by 20kg, changed his pool training routine, and adopted a more pragmatic mindset both in and out of the competition pool.
It was evident this change was paying dividends when he delivered a 21.27 at the Australian World Aquatics Championships Trials last month. It was McEvoy’s first personal best since 2016 and was delivered mid-morning, without a taper, in the heats, while learn-to-swim lessons ran in the pool next door.
The time made the swimming world take notice. It made him the tenth fastest swimmer of all-time in the event and was a time that would have won the world title in Budapest last year. With Caleb Dressel not making the trip to Japan it also installed McEvoy as the hot favourite for his first world title.
And it has been a wait for McEvoy. Many thought that after his Olympic Games results in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 that the Australian sprinter may never end up realising his potential. His Olympic Trials times of 21.44 in the 50m Freestyle and 47.04 in the 100m Freestyle earlier that year would have seen him claim two individual medals in Rio – the 100m Freestyle time more than half a second faster than teammate Kyle Chalmers’ gold medal winning time. That 100m Freestyle time would also have won gold at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest the following year, a race in which McEvoy topped the heats but finished fourth in the final.
And so after five years in the swimming wilderness, Cameron McEvoy has returned, aged 29, the oldest member of the Australian team, and swimming the fastest times of his career. His win makes the ‘veteran’ the oldest male gold medallist in Fukuoka thus far, and also the oldest male to win the 50m Freestyle long course world title since Aleksandr Popov in 2003.
His time of 21.06 in the final at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka tonight also makes him the fourth fastest male of all-time, just 0.16 off Cesar Cielo’s supersuit world record from 2009. He also breaks the Oceania Record and the Australian Record, but most importantly proves that in sprint freestyle - age is just a number.