Cameron McEvoy makes Olympic in quest to break 36-year Aussie swimming drought

Cameron McEvoy has claimed a remarkable slice of history at the Olympic swimming trials as he looks to break a 36-year drought.

Cam McEvoy is off to his fourth Olympics.

Cameron McEvoy has made history by becoming the first Australian male swimmer to go to four Olympic Games.

The born-again sprinter won the 50m freestyle at the Australian trials in Brisbane on Wednesday night, clocking a slick time of 21.35 seconds.

Ben Armbruster also snuck under the qualifying time in 21.84 to book his spot on his first Olympics team.

McEvoy won gold in the 50m freestyle at last year’s world championships in Japan and backed it up with silver at the world titles in Qatar at the start of this year.

Australia has never won a medal of any colour in the men’s 50m freestyle at the Olympics since the event was first raced in Seoul in 1988. McEvoy is as good a chance as anyone to break a fairly extraordinary drought.

The 30-year-old joins Emily Seebohm, Cate Campbell and Leisel Jones as the only Australian swimmers to compete at four Olympics.

“It’s special because you could almost fill a book with legendary Aussie male names in the sport, so (it’s a) privilege having that title under my belt, having that type of longevity,” McEvoy said.

Cam McEvoy is off to his fourth Olympics. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“I think ultimately it just makes me proud because it shines a light on the persistence and perseverance that I’ve had over ... my entire career, but particularly over the last seven years.

“I’ll do my best to honour it over in Paris and we’ll see what happens with LA to come and whatever happens after Paris.”

McEvoy has won three Olympic bronze medals in relays, but an individual medal has eluded him so far.

He swam the fastest ever non-supersuit 100m freestyle at the Rio trials, but finished seventh in the Olympic final as an 18-year-old Kyle Chalmers claimed a stunning gold.

McEvoy quit swimming following the Tokyo Olympics, and would have retired had he not found so much success dipping back into the pool with a revolutionised new training approach.

He slashed his weekly training distances by up to 40 kilometres and has studied other sports like gymnastics, weightlifting and callisthenics to get the most out of his new bulked up frame.

McEvoy has cut nearly half a second off his time from diving off the blocks to the 15m mark, something he says is critical in the one lap dash.

No Aussie man has ever won an Olympic medal in the 50m free. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

The bulked up frame and new training approach is working wonders. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Now the Australian record holder in the 50m with his 21.06sec at last year’s world titles, McEvoy says his new-found speed and consistency has surpassed even his own expectations.

“About 18 months ago my goal was to just come back, give this new training approach a go, see what happens and if I can maybe go under 22 (seconds) again I’d be over the moon with that,” he said.

“So what I’ve done so far has just obliterated any expectations I had.

“With that, I’m most excited to get this done and then just compile what I’ve learnt and just push it out there into the public.

“I know there’s a tremendous amount of swimmers who have been in my position, currently are in my position who would want to learn from that, a lot of coaches want to learn from that, and I think I can provide a lot of good to a lot of athletes who love the sport, but they’re not quite on the right path in terms of the type of training and the philosophy and everything.

“So looking past Paris, I’m very excited to do my best to help people out that way.”

McEvoy half-joked he isn’t ruling out competing at Brisbane 2032 Games, when he would be 38 years old.

Originally published as Cameron McEvoy makes Olympic in quest to break 36-year Aussie swimming drought