Coach urges McEvoy to rethink his approach
SWIMMING: Australia’s head swimming coach, Jacco Verhaeren, says Cameron McEvoy has to “head back to the drawing board” as he attempts to rediscover the form that made him the world’s fastest sprinter.
Verhaeren said McEvoy needed to make changes in the wake of his 100m performance on the Gold Coast, but the coach had no concerns the 23-year-old was a “lost case”.
McEvoy holds the world’s fastest time in a textile suit, a 47.04sec swim at the Olympic trials in 2016.
He failed to go close to that effort in Rio, fading in the final as Kyle Chalmers swamped the field to win a shock Olympic gold, and McEvoy has struggled at these Games, just missing a medal in the 100m.
Verhaeren did not believe McEvoy had wilted under pressure, but encouraged the Gold Coaster to examine his approach.
“I think with him it’s time to go back to the drawing board, see what he did very well leading up to his 47.0 – the standard he set for himself – and see how we can get back there pretty quickly,” the coach said.
“I’m not worried he can’t get there. Worried would mean we’re looking at a near-lost case and I don’t think that’s the issue at all.
“Physically he hasn’t changed, so he’s still very well capable of doing incredible things, but we need to find a way.”
McEvoy, who won gold in the 4x100m relay and made the 50m final, admitted his performances were not what he had wanted this week.
“It’s not like I’m standing here in a panic mode going: ‘What the hell is wrong, I don’t know what’s going to happen after this’,” he said.
“I’ve got a very good idea of what to do and how to progress forward from here.”