James Magnussen dives back into international competition

James Magnussen is about to dip his toes back into international waters as he begins a five-meet tour of Europe.

Swimmer James Magnussen is off to compete in Europe ... ‘I can’t wait to do some racing.’ Picture: John Feder

It has been almost a year since dual world champion James Magnussen stood on the blocks for a serious 100m freestyle race but he is about to dip his toes back into international waters on a five-meet tour of Europe.

“I can’t wait to do some racing,’’ he said before his departure for Europe tomorrow.

“I’m not sure how I will go. Sometimes when you don’t race for a while everything clicks into place first time, and sometimes it doesn’t.

“But I have three meets in the Mare Nostrum series (Monaco, Canet, Barcelona) to start and I’d like to be hitting my straps by Rome (the annual Settecolli Trophy meet, June 23-25). I want to use the Mare Nostrum series to iron out a few problems.’’

He will round off the tour in Chartres for the French Open meet on July 1 and 2.

Based on his training since he made the decision to skip this year’s world titles, Magnussen thinks he may be in the best form he’s found since early 2014, when he was breaking 48sec at will.

“Probably the best I have ever felt was in early 2014 and I’d say I am not far off that, and I am working towards that,’’ he said.

It was later that year that his left shoulder began to bother him, eventually leading to a shoulder reconstruction in mid-2015 which left him short on time to qualify for last year’s Olympic trials. He finished fourth there, qualifying for the 4x100m freestyle relay team in Rio, but not for the individual 100m.

His shoulder still wasn’t right in Rio and he decided afterwards that he needed to take things slowly after his rushed return for the Olympics. That approach appears to have worked.

“I have been able to do a lot of uninhibited training, which is awesome,’’ he said. “The biggest problem has been me pushing too hard and exhausting myself, and it’s nice to have that problem rather than being held back by external factors.

“I have been able to do repeat efforts of things, which I hadn’t been able to do since before the surgery and which I need to do for the back end of my race.

“The back end was always my strength. I really want to regain that back-end dominance. Every big meet it gets highlighted that that’s where the 100m is won.

“I haven’t been fully confident in my preparation since the surgery and in that situation having confidence in your back end is nigh on impossible.’’

Magnussen also lost some flexibility in his repaired shoulder in the year after the surgery and said he had worked hard to restore the range of movement that was one of his most potent weapons when he ruled the sprint world.

“My left arm was almost doing straight-arm freestyle, but I feel like I’m moving well again now.’’

He revealed that it was the exceptional force that he was able to apply at the end of his freestyle stroke that caused his shoulder injury.

He has worked to strengthen the muscles around the joint but said he needed to get back to applying the same force through his stroke to re-emerge as an international contender.

“I have to get that back for as long as I can, and if another injury happens, so be it,’’ he said.

Even though he feels like he has found some good form, he has no regrets about his decision to skip the world titles.

“In hindsight, I wish I had done it after the Olympics because it’s been much better to work slowly towards next year’s Commonwealth Games. But there’s no way I would have taken time off after London, I was hungry to win another world title.’’

He’s not hungry for that now but he would like to set a time during his European sojourn that will hold up well against the times at the world titles in July.

Britain’s Duncan Scott leads the world rankings with a 47.90sec clocking, just ahead of Cameron McEvoy, who won the national title in 47.91sec.

McEvoy, who is also doing the Mare Nostrum series, will give Magnussen a good gauge of his progress in the next month.

“No one is really setting the world on fire so far this year and it’s always good to post a time, it would be good to have that going into a major home Games,’’ Magnussen said.

Commonwealth Games trials will be held just weeks before the Games next year, rather than the usual three months, as Swimming Australia tries out an American-style schedule.

Magnussen said the late trials “make so much more sense’’.

“Whatever the Americans do between trials and Olympics, their conversion rate of PBs (at the Olympics) is much better than ours, so there’s got to be something in that.’’

Magnussen is determined to reclaim an individual spot in the 100m but he knows there are no certainties even though the Commonwealth Games allows a more generous three swimmers per nation per event.

Australia currently has three of the fastest 100m men in history (world championships silver medallist McEvoy, Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers and Magnussen) as well as a second outstanding 18-year-old in Jack Cartwright, so a top-three finish cannot be taken for granted, even for someone of Magnussen’s calibre.

“That’s one of the reasons that I’ve placed more importance on the Commonwealth Games,’’ he said.

“The last couple of Commonwealth Games finals have been super-strong and we could have three of the top five in the world in our team. It’s like a mini-Olympics in my mind.’’