How a “magic block’’ and a spirit of adventure took Cam McEvoy to the top of the podium

Cam McEvoy’s remarkable rebirth to Olympic gold started with curiosity and a willingness to rip up swimming’s sports science rulebook writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

IMAGINE spending 18 months of your life trying to save the amount of time it takes you to click your fingers.

Cam McEvoy did this. His reward is a stunning Olympic gold medal at age 30, which, apart from changing his life, will change his sport. It has freshened him up so much he is contemplating staying on for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics – at age 38!

“If the motivation is there and the body holds up I cannot see why not – older swimmers than 38 have won world championship medals,’’ McEvoy said.

This is a story like no other. The sprinting world was watching McEvoy with total captivation last night for even before his win in the 50m freestyle in Paris he had been inundated for information about his unique “less in more’’ training philosophy.

His rivals knew he has cut down from swimming more than 90kms per week to around seven and, as James Magnussen said on the Matty Johns podcast, the fact that he has struck gold means those rivals simply must consider upending everything that has been rated conventional wisdom in the sport for decades and follow his lead.

“I always thought there was potentially another way to do sprint freestyle,’’ McEvoy said.” If I didn’t work there was closure. If it worked I would see how far I could get so it was a win-win situation. It was really enjoyable. I had the journey of a lifetime.’’

McEvoy, who paid a touching tribute to his coach Tim Lane, almost quit after the Rio Olympics eight years ago and decided to have a final fling where he became a self-confessed “guinea pig‘’ of sports science at the Queensland Academy of Sport after randomly timing himself over 50m after holiday and being surprised by how quick it was.

Enter QAS sports scientists including Nick Smith who was surely, apart from parents and coaches, the most nervous man at the Olympic swim venue last night.

“I honestly felt sick when he was on the blocks,‘’ said Smith, but McEvoy’s brilliant 0.56 time off the blocks, one of the quickest in memory, won him the race. After 18 months of toil, train and trial, he hit the bullseye.

McEvoy’s improved time off the blocks propelled him to gold medal glory. Picture: Adam Head

“Eighteen months ago I got call from my boss who said would you like to meet him,‘’ Smith said.

“I knew he was strong in his opinions and he butted heads with a few coaches but that was no problem.

“We went through all his 50m and 100m over the last few years and said ‘you can find time here’. You need to start faster. He said ‘I agree. How do we do it?‘’

So off they went into the world of digital data searching for a quick start atom that is the quick start and came the plan which had more threads than a Persian carpet.

Plenty of this ... Picture: Tim Hunter.

Led to this ... Picture: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

The QAS were so intent on helping McEvoy with his starts they brought a swimming block into the gymnasium and bolted it to the floor so while random cyclists and runners were doing weights around him McEvoy was crouching in all sorts of quirky positions on top of “the magic block.‘’

Sounds weird but guess what? It worked. They even spent $30,000 on a resistance machine to help his training and in a series of texts which flashed around last night, that money is now considered well spent.

McEvoy did mobility and strength work, tinkered with his foot placement on the block, his hip movement, his hamstrings. Anything that moved he tweaked, stretched or tested in search of that spring-loaded start.

McEvoy became a sports science guinea pig with a ‘less is more’ philosophy. Picture: Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP

In fact the plan became so detailed he was in danger of overcooking the broth.

“For a while he took a really long time to set-up and I said “mate, you are going to need to do this quicker otherwise you are going to get disqualified.‘’

So determined was McEvoy to gain an edge he even read about athletes in other sports and how they maximised force production. A brilliant student with a thirst for knowledge, he was literally in his element.

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“It was awesome for him. He loves data. Sometimes he does my job for me. He says can you send me my database of numbers from the last few months. I will say what do you need? Do you need me to pull anything out? He will say ”no just send me the raw data.‘’ and will send me the spreadsheet back.’’

Then, when the big moment came, something strange happened. He threw away the sheet music and didn’t stress over the times and just swam to glory, changing his life … and his sport in the process

Originally published as How a “magic block’’ and a spirit of adventure took Cam McEvoy to the top of the podium