Article by Jackson Barrett, courtesy The West Australian.
Australian veteran Cam McEvoy has won the splash-and-dash 50m freestyle in a fairytale end to his Olympic career, just years after walking away from the sport.
The four-time Olympian is the country’s first-ever medallist in the event and at 30, is the oldest ever Australian to win gold.
Benjamin Proud, who McEvoy shared a dead heat with for first in the semifinal, won silver and hometown hero Florent Manadou claimed bronze — his fourth-straight Games with a medal.
McEvoy claimed gold with a lightning time of 21.25 seconds, 0.05 ahead of Proud, in a swim where he teased the world record line until the final 15 metres. It is a win he described as “pure joy”.
“It was bliss, the way the stroke moved in the water. I never thought I’d be able to experience that, like the joy of the movement I just did, let alone get a gold medal with it,” he said on pool deck.
“It was very hard to contain myself, I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated that hard after a race either, that’s a first for me too.
“Even without the medal, if I finished fourth or eighth or whatever, I would have done more than I ever thought I could have left in the tank.”
It is Australia’s ninth gold medal at this Games, but the first to be won by a man.
The 30-year-old left the sport in the wake of the Tokyo Olympics and it was only after spending time working on his strength through calisthenics sessions that he turned his eye to the sport’s most frantic event.
Then it was a trip to Paris in the middle of the Olympic cycle that convinced him competing in the city would be his next target.
In between times he completely overhauled his training regime and revealed pre-Games that he cut a 30km training program down by 90 per cent in a novel approach to his reincarnated career.
McEvoy said he believes the win justifies his methods and wants to use them to help pushing sprint swimming forward.
Part of that approach meant completely shunning every other event. The 50m freestyle was the only race he contested at this year’s Australian trials.
“I think with the new training approach I can help so many people around the world and help push sprinting forward, so this only solidifies this method and it’s just unreal,” McEvoy said.
Backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown then charged home to win gold in the women’s 200m backstroke just minutes later, completing her defence of both the 100 and 200m titles from Tokyo.
And French master Leon Marchand held four fingers to the camera, then two fists to the sky after punching through the water to claim win the 200m men’s individual medley and his fourth gold medal at his home Games.
Marchand maintained his grip over these Games and the French public, claiming his fourth Olympic record.
He is the fifth person ever to win four gold medals at their home Olympics.
