A ‘dumbfounded’ Cam McEvoy has exposed the costly irony of his swimming world record and is adamant he can get even faster after revealing the extent of his radical, revolutionary training program.
McEvoy, 31, notched 20.88 seconds in the 50m freestyle at the China Open on March 20.
That bettered the 20.91 mark set by Brazilian Cesar Cielo while wearing a now-banned super-suit in December 2009, which many swimming pundits considered untouchable.
Back home in Brisbane, McEvoy admitted the record came earlier in his season than he had planned and that he had not swum beyond 25m in training before the event.
The four-time Olympian has reinvigorated his career after increasing his strength training and drastically reducing his weekly pool mileage from as much as 70km to 1.5km.
His time was also faster than Kristian Gkolomeev’s unofficial record of 20.89, achieved in a suit last year as a non-clean athlete pursuing the $US1 million ($A1.4 million) prize money offered by the Enhanced Games.
A frustrated Cam McEvoy has exposed the irony of his recent 50 metre freestyle swimming world record as a clean athlete (pictured, with his wife Madeline)
McEvoy, 31, touched the wall in 20.88 seconds in the 50m freestyle at the China Open – and won’t receive a cent for lowering the world record
‘With this world record, I got $0 for that,’ he said of the China Open feat that didn’t include a world title bonus.
McEvoy mused that the $US250,000 ($A357,000) first prize, plus the world title bonus, would have netted him about $2million if he ‘went the easier route’ in the pro-doping exhibition he says ‘holds no weight’.
‘I put a suit on which can easily drop half a second, then there’s the performance-enhancing drug side of things, which I have no idea what happens there, but I’m sure it’s an improvement,’ he said.
‘We’re talking in the order of $2million plus, compared to $0 and the $0 pathway is the much harder pathway to do something like this as well.
‘It’s pretty ludicrous, a bit unfortunate that the value placed on (a clean world record) is deemed, from that perspective, very low or worth nothing.
‘I’m dumbfounded in terms of the stark contrast that exists currently in the landscape of swimming.’
It hasn’t dampened the new father’s enthusiasm though, who is adamant he can get stronger and therefore faster in his mid-30s as he aims to swim at Brisbane’s 2032 Games.
‘I’ve got the scientific side of (me saying), ‘OK, there’s a little bit of low-hanging fruit there, maybe I can go quicker’,’ McEvoy said.
McEvoy mused that the $US250,000 ($A357,000) first prize, plus the world title bonus, would have netted him about $2 million if he ‘went the easier route’ at the Enhanced Games in May to be staged in Las Vegas (pictured, with his son Hartley)
McEvoy won the men’s 50m freestyle at the Paris Olympics after increasing his strength training and drastically reducing his weekly pool mileage from as much as 70km to 1.5km
‘And then the other side, which is kind of the realisation of a childhood dream. I’ve been knocked back from a sponsorship, being told that I was too old.
‘They wanted someone younger, so hopefully the result in China proves that people in their 30s can definitely sprint and continue to sprint.’
Australian head coach Rohan Taylor said McEvoy’s ‘venture’ was charting new ground for the sport, but warned that it was not a blanket approach.
‘If you’re going to be a concert pianist you don’t practice the trumpet,’ he said.
‘(But) he’s technically really, really superior, so that adds to what he’s doing.
‘The jury’s out on whether a young kid can start training from that perspective and get to where he is.’
