Forty of the 41 Australian swimmers who were selected for the Paris Olympics later this month are midway through a training and acclimatizing block in Canet, France, before they gather in Chartres on July 13 for an Olympic pre-staging camp.
While most of the Aussie squad has already assembled at the Arlette Franco Swimming Centre, which hosts one of the three Mare Nostrum Tour stops every summer, Cam McEvoy is back home at the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) with coach Tim Lane for a couple more days. Australia’s head coach, Rohan Taylor, made an exception for McEvoy to join his team in Canet on Sunday to accommodate his unique approach to sprint training in a 25-meter pool with measuring equipment.
“They felt the disruption to his training off the back of trials, with travel and adaptation with jet lag, would potentially slow him down and be a risk for them,” Taylor said. “He needs the standardized equipment like the KPASS block (Kistler force-instrumented starting block) at the QAS to measure and really help him progress through his stages of preparation.
“It was better for him to stay and continue his prep because he’s training so specifically and uses such specific stuff, like the indoor pool, the cameras, the blocks, and the resources the QAS have,” Taylor added. “He trains uniquely this way and no one else really does… so I felt like I was happy to support that.”
McEvoy is the fourth-fastest 50 freestyler of all time courtesy of his personal-best 21.06 from his world title last summer. He became the first Aussie man to qualify for four Olympics with his 50 free victory at Trials last month in 21.35. The oldest Australian swimmer headed to Paris (by just one day ahead of Bronte Campbell), the 30-year-old McEvoy fired off a world-leading 21.13 in prelims of February’s World Championships before ultimately settling for the silver medal in 21.45.
“My job is to support that performance,” Taylor said. “It’s that fine balance between not letting it be a free-for-all. We think it’s the right thing.”
McEvoy is aiming to become the first Aussie man to win an Olympic medal of any color in the 50 free. Ashley Callus came closest in 2008 with a 4th-place finish. After taking away from the sport following the Tokyo Olympics and finding new hobbies such as weightlifting and rock climbing, he has returned even stronger in the second stage of his career despite taking on less total meters swimming in the pool.
“I’ve done 10 sub-21.5 times since Trials last year,” McEvoy said. “Prior to this, I had only gone under that once in my entire career.
McEvoy said his approach to training and tapering for big races is inspired by the British speed cycling team.
“I’ve got a couple more weeks where we’ll suit up and do a lot of race replication and just get adapted to these new speeds that I’ve hit all year,” McEvoy said. “All year I was 21.8. Now I’m low 21. I’ll just get as much volume of that under my belt as I can, fly over to France, then rest off the back of that. I got the concept from the UK speed cycling team. They tapered it into a mock event, hit personal bests for the first time, and then that exposure to those PBs they adapted to, tapered off the back of that, and then got that extra 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 per cent [gain].”
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Olivia Wunsch is balancing schoolwork with swimming at her first Olympic training camp in Canet. She punched her ticket to Paris with a personal-best 53.17 100 free that placed 5th at last month’s Trials.
“I want to do well at school and I want to do well at the Games… it’s a juggle but a good juggle,” Wunsch said. “My school have been super supportive and the coaches are great… it’s just about time management.”
The pool swimming portion of the Paris Olympics begins on July 27, two weeks after the Aussie Olympic pre-staging gets underway in Chartres.
This team has so much money and support.
I honestly didn’t understand his quote about tapering like the cycling team with all the “adapting to PBs.” So his plan is to taper in Australia, go some best times there, and then taper further and go even faster in Paris? Am I reading that right?
My glorious king Cam McEvoy
Why are there always so many American trolls in threads about Australian swimmers?
Bizarrely, there were a couple of trolls who claimed that Australians are obsessed about Americans when the reality on this sub is the other way around.
It’s an American website. We were here first.
How very good for you.
There are dumb comments from everywhere. Idk why people wonder why the frequency of dumb American focused ones outnumber those from other countries
It’s proportional!
There are way more American based troll comments than others, hardly proportional my guy
in absolute numbers yes.. but percentage wise in comparions to the amount of people here from each country, it’s probably the same.
Exactly, most of the traffic is also from America.
There’s no way to actually do it but I bet it’s pretty correlated.
It is the only swimming-focused website on the internet that’s worth anyone’s time – so it’s everybody’s now. But yeah, the trolls are absolutely proportional – which of course doesn’t make it any less annoying, but it does negate the idea that being obnoxious on the Internet is an exclusively American trait.
(Oh, this person’s also Pan Fan – it’s not very obvious, because there is no trolling, but I’m way too good at recognizing them).
Oh I totally agree on the site I just…had more fun when it was more insular. (Though the trolling may wax / wane depending on which country thinks they have more of a leg to stand on to gloat, lol.)
And dang, this has been one of the longer-lasting usernames!
Don’t get me wrong but everyone is missing the big picture in this event. I will be Proud of the gold medal.
All this rocket science is being done by the McEvoy camp just to lose to a guy who wrestles Alligators, a French merman and a Ukrainian refugee.
The French merman was doing some rocket science earlier this year too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2pYs9romCU/
If I understood correctly his latest video, 3 more kg to shed and he becomes a “war machine”. Looks already pretty fit.
As one commenter wrote, in his 21.52 semi at French trials https://www.instagram.com/p/C8XdIwVoAhI/?img_index=1 he needed 32 strokes, with a relaxed finish (at least it looks relaxed) but in the final (21.54) https://www.instagram.com/p/C8ch_NAIjCD/ this increased to 36 strokes. Maybe still .2, .3 to gain if everything sticks. Maybe enough for a 4th podium.
Ukrainian guy is washed.
All this to place third behind Dressel and Giuliano.
Even the Aussie ladies, aren’t this high maintenance. And they have a better chance at winning gold.
Let’s unpack everything wrong with this comment:
A good troll at least pretends to say something that might be realistic. You need to up your game.
Is McEvoy going against Sjostrom? Perhaps his diva behavior has you confused.
Oh no! Another Seppo invading an Australian swimming thread to discourage our swimmers from kicking American butt at the Olympics! What will we ever do?!
Australia has 4 swimmers capable of winning gold. How exactly will they be “kicking American butt”
Only 3 Americans won gold in an Olympic event last year. So by your definition, 4 gold winners would qualify lol
Clearly, the towering intellectual’s math skills are on a par with his commenting skills.
You joking
Can McEvoy, Elijah Winnington, Sam short
Ariana titmuss, Molly O’Callaghan, Kaylee McKeown
That’s six, perhaps if you can count add multiple medals and a few relays. That’s how.
26 millions Australians living and partying 24/7 rent free inside Swimdad head.
Says the Aussie who refuses to watch Australian swimming.
Gosh you are an insufferable troll.
Australian Michael Andrew
That’s Isaac Cooper
At least McEvoy has an individual (gold) medal at a major LCM meet
Cooper won gold at Doha but I guess that whole meet has a big asterisk.
In a non Olympic event, McEvoy’s event is.
Wrong. That is Isaac Cooper.
Funnily enough, Isaac Cooper get to go to Paris.
Why are so many people on this site obsessed with Michael Andrew 😭💀 Let the gal live, honestly