Big Mac relishing chance at games
Cameron McEvoy admits he must learn to execute in the big moments if he is to clinch a major title and rank among Australia’s swimming greats.
The 23-year-old is the fastest swimmer in history in a textile suit and among the favourites for gold at a home Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast next year.
To even snare an individual swim in his pet 100m freestyle, though, McEvoy will have to negotiate the fastest field ever assembled at an Australian championships and beat at least two men who have dipped into rare territory in the event.
McEvoy is undaunted though and looking forward to the challenge.
The Bond University squad member has an outstanding record at national titles and Australian qualifying events and has been able to replicate or better that form on the international stage on several occasions.
But he remains defined by many by his performance at the Rio Olympics last year, where he entered the final as favourite and finished without a medal.
McEvoy is a man of science though – and the numbers say that was an aberration.
“If you look at the times that I’ve swum at the nationals and the times I’ve then done at the benchmark competition that year, every year, I’ve been within about 0.2-0.3sec aside from the 2016 year,” McEvoy said.
“It’s not ideal to be 0.2-0.3 behind – in some cases it’s been ahead, which is great – but that variance in 100m isn’t too much.
“It’s really down to that Rio year that that idea is modelled on.”
That’s because McEvoy was just over a second slower than his world-leading time of 47.04sec in the Rio final – an effort that would have won gold had he been able to replicate it.
But other people’s perceptions of his ability under pressure do not matter.
“It’s really how I perceive it and how I react to it and go about racing with it,” he said.
“With world rankings, I’ve got the No.1 textile time, which is something to be extremely proud of.
“And I’ve got a whole bunch of other times that rank me in that number of (elite) swims in history that’s around the number that Maggie (two-time world champion James Magnussen) has done and (2012 Olympic champion) Nathan Adrian’s done.
“So the runs on the board have been really good, it’s just now a matter of having the ability and learning the ability that say, James has had – or others such as Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett – to execute it at the moment or the swim that you need to execute it at.”
McEvoy, who is also a Games ambassador, said he enjoyed working with the likes of Longines and Gold Coast Games organisers.
“All these extra opportunities add an extra dimension to the experience of the Commonwealth Games for me,” the born and bred Gold Coaster said.
“All of the opportunities have been really well integrated around my training and they’ve only been done under the provision that they don’t affect my training and my preparation leading up to the Games.
“Having that peace of mind of knowing that everything I do in the water and the gym is going to be unaffected – and on top of that I get to work with such great brands as Longines and also be a part of the Commonwealth Games as a whole – it’s not something that a lot of athletes get the opportunity to do in their career.”