Cam McEvoy says his 50m freestyle world record is just the beginning

Cameron McEvoy says 50m world record just the beginning, Australian Swimming Trials first chance to go fasteranalysis Link copiedShareShare articleCameron McEvoy has got into the habit of making the incredible look relatively routine. So much so that his undoubtedly incredible 50m freestyle world record set earlier this year at the China Open was only the beginning of what he feels he can achieve. "I definitely think I can get faster," McEvoy said upon his return from China. The statement seems both scarcely believable yet utterly convincing when coming from the 32-year-old defending Olympic champion. And it makes the event at this evening's Australian swimming trials a must-watch. Especially because the Sydney Olympic venue is something of a "fast" pool. Need proof? There have been 37 long-course world records set in the Sydney Olympic pool since it opened in 1994. The men's 50-metre freestyle world record has been broken three times at Homebush, all by a super suit-clad Eamon Sullivan in that early autumn of accelerated development in 2008. That being said, just one of those 37 marks set in Sydney still stands: Kaylee McKeown's 200m back. Budapest's Danube Arena and Fukuoka's competition pool have six current world records each. Cam McEvoy holds the 50m freestyle world record, but he thinks he can go faster. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang) Can McEvoy return the men's 50m free to the honour roll tonight? "On paper, there's definitely room to improve," McEvoy said. "Whether that happens on an execution point of view, I can't be so certain. "Even on the training side of things, I'm constantly refining it and developing it. "The underlying skeleton is always the same, but the actual day-to-day representation of what that looks like; there's many different forms that can take. "So a part of the game is just rolling the dice on a new approach every season and seeing what comes with that too, which is really exciting and gives a lot more purpose than just chasing times and medals as well. Eamon Sullivan broke the 50m free world record three times in the space of a couple of months at the start of the super-suit era. (AAP Photo: Jenny Evans) Prior to McEvoy's staggering swim in Shenzhen, the 50m free record had remained a somewhat unattainable target. At 16 years, it was one of the longest-standing world records remaining in swimming, one of the last relics of the super-suit era — a time both set in the distant past and an inaccessible technology-fuelled future. Australian swimmer and 50m freestyle world record holder Cam McEvoy says it is "ludicrous" that doped-up swimmers are being offered as much as $2 million to break a world record, while his legitimate mark earned him nothing. Prior to the technological arms race that overtook swimsuit manufacture in the late 2000s, the 50m world record had only been beaten four times in the 19 years since Matt Biondi set his mark of 22.14 at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. American Tom Jager bettered it three times before Russia's Alexander Popov, the very definition of the anti-super suit swimmer, achieved a mark of 21.64 in speedo briefs and without wearing a swim cap in Moscow in 2000. However, from the outset of the super-suit era, that all changed. In February 17, 2008, Australian Eamon Sullivan set a new record of 21.56 at Homebush in the Australian Championships. By the time César Cielo blasted a 20.91 down the pool just 23 months later, the record had been bettered five times by swimmers wearing suits that covered their torsos and extended down to their ankles. It had taken 19 years for swimmers to take 0.5 seconds off the record before the super suit era. During it, 0.73 seconds had been erased in under two years. César Cielo held the 50m free world record for 16 years. (Getty Images: Clive Rose) Progress can be achieved in a number of different ways. Technologically, as was certainly the case in the late 2000's; nefariously, as was the case at the farcical Enhanced Games; or through some other form of innovation, perhaps through training specification. It's training innovation that is precisely what McEvoy has employed to get himself into shape specifically for 50-metre racing. McEvoy's approach is not necessarily new. British short course specialist Mark Foster was prioritising a less-is-more training regime as long as 30 years ago to great effect: the six-time short course world champion broke the 50m freestyle world record four times and the 50m butterfly five times in a 25-metre pool during his stellar career. Ben Proud (right) who Cam McEvoy (left) beat to Olympic gold in Paris, has taken the Enhanced route forward, eliminating himself from legitimate competition. (Getty Images: VCG) But McEvoy has taken things to the nth degree, exploring how he can tailor his training even more specifically. "There's a lot of different ways, from a day-to-day perspective, that this training can go," McEvoy explained when asked whether he was surp

Cam McEvoy says his 50m freestyle world record is just the beginning

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