The Dominance Series Sponsored by SwimSpray, a SwimSwam partner.
As country after country finalizes their Olympic roster, most swimmers aim to finish in the top two, or meet an Olympic qualifying time. But for some swimmers, finishing top two isn’t enough. When they get a lane, they don’t go for qualification. They go for domination.
So it was for Cameron McEvoy in the 50 Free, which historically has been a “bonus” swim for him. Coming into Trials with a personal best of 21.73, qualifying for Rio would be a good, realistic goal. Instead, McEvoy blitzed the field, winning in 21.44 by a dominance margin of 2.99%. That was the largest margin of victory in any event, male or female, and would have won silver by a tenth in London.
Congratulations to Cameron McEvoy on the Most Dominant Swim of Australian Trials!
Some other noteworthy Dominating Swims from Down Under:
- Olympic Trials produced three new Australian records. Of those, Emma McKeon’s 200 Free record was the most dominant, at 0.61%.
- Besides McEvoy, the swimmer with a dominance factor over 2.00 was Mitch Larkin, and he didn’t even swim personal bests. But his winning time in the 200 Back (1:53.90) still dominates the 2nd-fastest Aussie of ALL-TIME by 1.69%.
- Although he finished in second, Jack McLoughlin qualified for Rio and dominated his personal best in the 1500 Free by 2.69%. The Olympic qualifier who dropped the next most time was McEvoy, who only cut HALF as much off his 50 Free.
I agree with Robbos.Although the 100 free is currently a stacked field,I think the only way he could lose is if someone like Nathan Adrian steps up and he ends up like Magnussen.
Yes Swimnerd, I think someone has to steps up big time. McEvoy is a very different beast to Magnussen & will not go back to the field like Maggie did.
Nathan who…oh the 46+ Dude that some on here think he will swim in Rio…hmmmm
Whilst I will agree with both yourself and Rob that McEvoy has to be seen as a clear favourite; nobody’s name (not even Ledecky’s) is yet engraved on any medals. Illness & injury can take out/negatively impact anyone from the rank amateur from Burkina Faso to World Champions. Rob IS correct in saying that McEvoy is a very different creature to Magnussen and one of the positives of the Olympics being less popular now in OZ is that the media pressure is now considerably less.
How he, or any other swimmer from anywhere, may handle the Rio pressure, both competition and/or external factors; no one can know at this point
Yes but I’m a mere fan making a prediction. Just like you are a fan making a prediction that McKeon (female) won’t win an individual medal, which goes against everything you say in your post above.
You seem to have a different train of thought for the Aussie swimmers.
McEvoy has every chance to fail as much as McKeon has every chance to win gold, anything can happen.
He’s the favorite yes, but we got a guy name Caleb Dressel and it’d be stupid to pretend 40.46 short course doesn’t mean anything long course.
McEvoy is a strong favourite for the 100 free in RIO.