Stewart McSweyn reveals extent of heart scare after sizzling return to form

Olympic star Stewart McSweyn has made a sizzling return to form while opening up about the heart scare that threatened to derail his career.

Olympic finalist Stewart McSweyn has bounced back from a career-threatening heart scare with a blistering 3000m run in Stockholm on Friday morning, revealing post-race there were times he pondered whether he’d ever return to his best.

McSweyn produced an impressive 7:31.93 effort in a fourth-placed finish, leading the field until the final lap in a sign he is bouncing back to his best ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Australia’s 1500m record holder was dramatically pulled from a race in March and later diagnosed with pericarditis – inflammation around the heart – in an adverse reaction to the Covid booster shot, which his team said he administered too quickly after having the virus itself.

Speaking exclusively to NCA NewsWire following a stunning return to form on Friday, the Tokyo 1500m finalist opened up about the prospect of never returning to his record-running best.

“Eugene and Commonwealth Games in Birmingham are coming up pretty quick, so I wasn’t sure whether I’d be back this season, whether I was going to be at the level I want to perform the following season, whether I would maybe even get back to my best at all,” the 27-year-old said.

Stewart McSweyn has opened up about fearing he wouldn’t return to his best. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“It’s obviously tough, just the unknown. I was trying to do what I normally could, but I was just physically unable to do it.

“Any athlete, you want to be able to control everything you can, so having stuff that was out of your control coming from the illness was tough.”

But the Melbourne-based McSweyn on Friday allayed fears he wouldn’t return to his best in time for Eugene and Birmingham, with the middle-distance gun crediting increased rest and reduced training time to his body’s recovery.

He says he has “turned a corner” in recent weeks.

“It’s a huge relief to know that I can still do it,” he said.

The middle-distance star says it was a ‘huge relief’ to rediscover his form. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“Racing tonight, I felt like I was back to how I normally run. I just felt like I was able to do it.

“Obviously, we’ve got world champs in a couple of weeks, so it’s not a bad time to start feeling like I’m coming into some form.”

McSweyn skipped out to the front from the outset of the Diamond League meeting race, leading the pack true to his style before narrowly losing his buffer on Kenyan Cornelius Kemboi (third), Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo (second) and refugee team representative Domnic Lobalu, who won with a personal best 7:29.48.

But McSweyn was hot on the heels of the pacy trio and daylight ahead of the fifth-placed Thierry Ndikumwenayo, producing his third-fastest 3000m time on a wind-affected track where anything quicker than 7:35 was considered a strong run.

“A couple of the guys, especially the guys who were first and second, are going to compete for the medals, so I’m thinking if I can hopefully get a bit better over another couple of weeks of training – I feel like the last three weeks I’ve improved a lot of per cent – I’m hoping I can keep improving a lot and be top per cent by Eugene,” McSweyn said.

He will fly to the US ahead of the weekend for a training camp before the World Championships begin on July 15.