See the reason why Olympics star is NOT flying to Paris with the team
- Cam McEvoy is not flying with his Australian teammates
- Veteran wants to stay in Brisbane until next month
- McEvoy is aiming to medal in the 50m freestyle
Australian swimming star Cam McEvoy has decided not to travel with his Dolphins teammates to Paris.
McEvoy, 30, is bidding to become the first Australian male to win an Olympic medal in the 50m freestlye, and as a result Swimming Australia have granted the veteran special permission when it comes to his preparations for the Games.
Following last week's trials in Brisbane, the first group of Aussie swimmers jetted off to France on Wednesday, with a second group set to depart on Saturday.
Typically, the team travels as one, but McEvoy will be going to Europe by himself, insisting that he stays in Brisbane so he is in the best shape possible for Paris.
McEvoy, a three-time Olympian and Australia's oldest swimmer going to France, will arrive next month, having remodelled his training program after all but retiring from swimming three years ago.
Cam McEvoy will not travel to the Olympics with his Australian teammates
The veteran is aiming to win a medal in the men's 50m freestyle in Paris
A focus on strength and resistence has yielded superb results, including a gold medal in the world championships last year, and this unique approach has meant he wants to do things differently to his teammates.
Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor received a proposal from McEvoy's coach Tim Lane, in which the 30-year-old does a portion of training at Queensland Academy of Sport, where technology is in place to scrutinise every single aspect of his technique.
'They felt the disruption to his training off the back of trials, with travel and adaptation with jet lag, would potentially slow him down and be a risk for them,' Taylor told the Sydney Morning Herald.
'He needs the standardised equipment like the KPASS block (Kistler force-instrumented starting block) at the QAS to measure and really help him progress through his stages of preparation.
'It was better for him to stay and continue his prep because he's training so specifically and uses such specific stuff, like the indoor pool, the cameras, the blocks and the resources the QAS have. He trains uniquely this way and no one else really does … so I felt like I was happy to support that.
But due to a specialised program, he has been given permission to travel later
'Cam and his coach Tim [Lane] will come over on July 7.'
Speaking about his preparations for the Games, McEvoy said: “I’ve got a couple more weeks where we’ll suit up and do a lot of race replication and just get adapted to these new speeds that I’ve hit all year.
“All year I was 21.8. Now I’m low 21. I’ll just get as much volume of that under my belt as I can, fly over to France, then rest off the back of that.
“I got the concept from the UK speed cycling team. They tapered it into a mock event, hit personal bests for the first time, and then that exposure to those PBs they adapted to, tapered off the back of that, and then got that extra 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 per cent [gain].”
