Cameron McEvoy, Mollie O’Callaghan open up on mental health battles post-Paris Olympics at Australian swimming trials
Olympic medallists Cameron McEvoy and Mollie O’Callaghan both revealed the mental toll of the Paris Olympics led to a “rough” couple of months, but the two are back to dominating the pool at the Australian swimming trials.
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Star Olympic medallist Cam McEvoy has revealed he struggled with his own mental health hurdles after the Paris Games and believes he can reach even bigger heights after taking out the 50m freestyle final at the national trials in Adelaide.
McEvoy, who won 50m freestyle gold in Paris, swam an impressive 21.30 seconds to finish ahead of SA’s own Kyle Chalmers (21.68 seconds) in the final – a best in the world time so far in 2025.
The 31-year-old said he needed to mentally recover after the Olympics to begin his preparation for nationals and the World Championships he has now qualified for.
“I definitely went through a tough period,” he said.
“You go from your world being extremely tiny – swim, eat, sleep, that’s it, and as soon as you touch the wall and your race finishes, that flips upside down.
“You’ve got the entire world to deal with and you have to come down emotionally, it definitely was a bit of a rollercoaster.”
McEvoy employed a new, ‘radical’ approach to his training to start 2025, only beginning work on his swimming in late March after spending the majority of his time out of the pool or working on his dive to improve speed over the first 15 metres of his race.
He said he could “definitely get faster” before the World Championships next month.
“The best way I can put it, because my training is so hyper-specific, if I were to put it out on a bell curve all I have to do is my average to get that result, which gives me a huge amount of confidence and allows me to relax heading into a race.
“The consistency has been pretty unreal and to be in this spot and have that type of ability under my belt feels pretty special.
“Longer term, looking further ahead to LA (2028), I think there is a lot more I can do.”
Chalmers, who has been training the 50 metres under new coach Shaun Curtis to complement his 100-metre race, was thrilled with his personal best result but could not commit to the event for Singapore.
“It’s extremely satisfying, I’ve been putting a lot of work into upping my speed,” he said.
“It’s something I consider for the future (competing in the 50m internationally) but this year I haven’t given it enough preparation – it’s going to take me a few years of practice.
“It’s really good for working on my speed in that front end of my 100m, it’s a part of my race which has let me down over my career.”
HANCE BREAKS HIS OWN RECORD
Paralympic gold medallist Ben Hance has broken his own world record in the men’s multi-class 50m backstroke.
Hance’s time of 26.09 seconds, 0.6 seconds quicker than his previous mark set in Brisbane last year, was recognised by VIRTUS Sport as a world record. This event is a non-Para swimming event.
The 24-year-old was pleased with his achievement but said he was keeping his cards close to his chest ahead of the 100m backstroke, an event he won gold in at the 2024 Paralympics.
“I don’t really want them to know my full potential,” he said.
RELIEF FOR MOLLIE O AFTER ‘ROUGH’ COUPLE OF MONTHS
Champion swimmer Mollie O’Callaghan has opened up on her post-Olympics mental health battle after winning the 200m freestyle final at the Australian Swimming Trials.
The 21-year-old star, who won gold at the 2024 Paris games in the same event with an Olympic record, cruised to an impressive 1:54.43 time to qualify for this year’s World Championships in Singapore alongside St Peters Western squad mate Lani Pallister, who finished second.
The time was her fastest of the four 200m freestyle races she has completed so far this year.
An emotional O’Callaghan said the mental challenge she faced to return and race after the Olympics was one of the hardest she’d faced in swimming.
“I’ve had a rough past couple months, it was really stressful for me,” she said.
“There hasn’t been anything as hard as this, coming back and trying to race after the Olympics.
“I have had a lot of pressure on myself to get to this point and to make the team, especially in the 200 freestyle – I put a lot of pressure on myself.
“Externally, people expect a lot of me but they don’t see the work that goes behind it and what I’ve been through.
“Tonight I was a bit off of it, I was a bit anxious (but) after the lead up I’ve had these past few months, to come back after a long break, a couple injuries and other ‘bits and bobs’ I’m pretty proud of myself.”
O’Callaghan recently participated in a Thailand training camp with coach Dean Boxall which she credited for helping her regain her focus for national trials.
She said she had talked with her coach about focusing more on enjoying her time in the sport this year.
“This year is about having fun to be honest, I achieved everything I wanted to at the Olympics and I just needed a mental break after that.
“Dean and I have spoken about it this year, there have been some curveballs thrown at me but it’s about having fun.
“I think making the team and having that pressure taken off, just to go race, meet new people, enjoy myself and train alongside my buddies in this team – that’s the whole purpose of this.
“I’m (also) trying to discover who I am outside of the pool.”
Pallister, who clocked a strong 1:54.89 time to finish second, had major praise for O’Callaghan and sympathised with her struggles.
“We train across the pool from each other … she’s such an incredible athlete, she’s incredible with what she does and what she can do,” she said.
“I think sometimes people forget that athletes are also people – there is so much expectation on Australian swimmers to win multiple gold medals every four years … it can bring you down.”
O’CALLAGHAN LAUDS MCINTOSH
O’Callaghan’s performance came just a day after teenage Canadian phenom, Summer McIntosh smashed another freestyle world record.
Last week, the emerging 18-year-old superstar surged past Ariarne Titmus’ record in the 400m freestyle with a time of 3:54.18 and she followed that effort up on Tuesday by eclipsing Katinka Hosszu’s 200m individual medley record with a 2:05.70 result.
McIntosh could now be aiming to repeat those efforts in the 200m freestyle, a world record Titmus currently holds at 1:52.23.
O’Callaghan said she couldn’t help noticing what McIntosh was doing.
“You can’t help but hear about what Summer has been doing,” O’Callaghan said.
“I don’t follow it super closely, I just go off of what I hear.
“It’s really good for the sport.”
Summer McIntosh has given away her stuffy and medal after each world record and Canadian record throughout trials
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) June 11, 2025
Another awesome moment here for these young fans.
Summer mania has swept across this pool, and around the country. pic.twitter.com/7NK4mkDicB
O’Callaghan recently participated in a Thailand training camp with revered coach Dean Boxall to prepare for this week’s trials.
She believed she was ready to attack 2025 and remained focused on her own preparation and performance despite McIntosh throwing down the gauntlet to Australia’s best with her recent swims.
“I had a really good time in Thailand and I’m feeling good,” O’Callaghan said.
“I mainly just focus on what I’m doing – you’re only as good as your last swim.”
AUSSIE SWIMMING SPRINT KING ADOPTS MORE ‘RADICAL’ TRAINING
Australian Olympic champion Cam McEvoy has changed his training methods ‘radically’ this year in an attempt to reach even bigger heights after a successful performance in Paris.
McEvoy won gold in the 50m freestyle with a lightning time of 21.25 seconds and has been searching for new ways to improve since returning to Australia.
From hanging from bars and walking in air, to swimming with resistance bands, McEvoy is no stranger to employing unique training methods to better his performance.
He said he only started the swimming part of his training in late March.
“Post-Olympics is probably the best time to really go down the extreme end of the spectrum and see what you can and can’t get away with,” the 31-year-old star said.
“I’ve been doing something pretty radically different for the last three years and this year again is very different to what I’d previously been doing.
“It’s a similar philosophy with the same sort of underlying skeleton but the main thing is I only started the swimming portion in the last week of March – in previous years I’d be back in the water by October.
“Pushing it all back five months has been a little bit nerve-racking but in saying that, my times have been the best in-season times I’ve ever done.”
Part of the reason McEvoy delayed his swimming training was to improve his dive and build towards a quicker first 15 metres of his performance.
He said it was an improvement he believed would make him even faster in the pool.
“Historically, my swim speed from 15 to 50 metres has been the best and I’ve been in the lower part of the pack in that first 15 metres so I’ve looked to improve that.
“I’ve now been able to throw down some good 15-metre times which has been nice.
“I never saw myself as a ‘dive guy’ because you need to be very athletic in terms of jump and ability and in the past I didn’t have much of that, I was a very swim-only type of creature so I’ve flipped that on its head now.”
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Originally published as Cameron McEvoy, Mollie O’Callaghan open up on mental health battles post-Paris Olympics at Australian swimming trials
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