Four weeks after this session, Cam McEvoy swam 20.88 and broke one of the most iconic world records in swimming. This week he went 20.97 in Glasgow for Commonwealth Games gold — his second swim under 21 seconds, and an Australian sweep of the podium.
This is how he was training in the weeks before it happened.
At the Queensland Academy of Sport, Cam is trialling a hybrid session I hadn’t seen anyone run before: two weighted pull-ups at 70kg, then straight off the block for a dive 25 — inside a minute. One round every ten minutes, six times through, before finishing the day in the gym.
Six dive 25s: 9.64, 9.55, 9.75, 9.64, 9.69, 9.69. Average 9.66, and a spread of two tenths across the whole set while fatigued and in a race suit. Then trap bar deadlifts at 165kg paired with jumps, and bench pull into bench press to close it out. Cam put three jump PBs on the board showing what form he was in.
Cam’s a three-time Olympian and the 50 free world record holder. What’s interesting isn’t that he trains hard — it’s how little he does, and how thoughtfully he rests between efforts. Three and a half hours at the pool for a handful of reps, because the reps only count if every one is brilliant.
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