Switch a master stroke
MADI Wilson may not be swimming her pet backstroke events but she heads to the world swimming championships in career-best sprint form after overhauling her stroke following a switch to Gold Coast coach Richard Scarce.
Wilson, who moved from Brisbane coach Michael Bohl’s squad to Scarce’s Bond University squad which includes sprint sensation Cameron McEvoy, will swim the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays at the world championships in Budapest next week.
Wilson missed a spot on the team in her pet events after failing to finish in the top two at the national trials in April but made the relay teams and has thrived since allowing Scarce to overhaul her freestyle stroke.
She has dropped just over a second from her 200m freestyle best, recording a 1min 57.6sec in Europe recently while still in hard training in an encouraging sign she could help propel Australia to a medal in the 4x200m relay.
“I’ve been doing a little bit of backstroke but mostly freestyle to get prepared for the relays as best I can,” she said.
“Rich has completely changed my … freestyle stroke so we’ve had some big improvements there. I trust Rich and it’s obviously paid off, so I was very open to any changes he suggested.”
A silver medallist in the 100m backstroke at the 2015 world championships, Wilson headed into last year’s Olympics ranked No.2 in the world in the event and won her semifinal but finished last in the final, saying she suffered from the pressure she put on herself to perform.
“Coming out of the Olympics I had a think about what I wanted to do this year in the first year of an Olympic cycle,” she said.
“I thought that (I wanted) just to try to take the pressure off myself a little bit and enjoy this year a bit more because I definitely want to go another four years and I want to still stay on the team and travel with the team and race.
“So being in relays is the best outcome for me.”
It’s not Wilson’s long-term goal though.
After leaving Rio with gold and silver medals for her heat swims in the 4x100m freestyle and medley relays, she has had a taste of international success and can’t wait to race in her new home town at the Commonwealth Games.
“I haven’t done much backstroke this preparation but I think as soon as I get back and start knuckling down for Comm Games, I really want to be able to do a heap of events, so freestyle and backstroke are both on my list there.”