Australian swimming is gearing up for a golden era that will reach its apex in a home pool at the upcoming Olympic Games. World record holder Cameron McEvoy voiced this bold outlook after watching the nation’s athletes dominate the competition in Glasgow, where the team secured 23 victories in the first 35 swimming events to put the Dolphins on course for their most successful Commonwealth Games campaign in the pool.
Commonwealth Dominance and the Runway to 2032
McEvoy stormed out of the blocks to add a fourth Commonwealth gold to his three relay wins, winning the men’s 50m freestyle final in 20.97 seconds on July 26, obliterating the Games record in the process and leading home an Australian 1-2-3 finish from Flynn Southam and Jamie Jack. The victory marks a continuation of a long-standing medal career in the event for McEvoy, who previously earned silver and bronze in the 50m freestyle back in Glasgow in 2014 and on home soil on the Gold Coast four years later.
The current squad’s trajectory convinces the veteran Olympian that the nation is building an unstoppable athletic pipeline.
Every year as a team, we go incredibly well. I think we peak every year – and then we come back the year after and we just take one step forward,
McEvoy told Australian media.
Cameron McEvoy
McEvoy noted that while the current team is incredible, a wave of youngsters at the national age-group level, or ones who just missed this team, will come through in their prime by Brisbane 2032, making the runway’s looking pretty red-hot.
Reviving the Drive for Los Angeles and Beyond
Earlier this year at the China Open in Shenzhen, the Australian stopped the clock in 20.88, shaving 0.2 seconds off the 17-year-old 50m free world record and becoming just the third man in history to break the 21-second barrier in swimming’s blue riband event. Reflecting on that milestone to Olympics.com at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 31-year-old compared the emotional aftermath to a honeymoon phase where newlyweds experience a honeymoon phase
after their wedding day, finding themselves riding a similar emotional high after making history.
That competitive spark has fully returned, fueled by an increasingly deep international sprint field. McEvoy pointed to a 21.06s swim from Egor Kornev at the 2026 Russian Swimming National Championships as proof that the path to defending his Olympic title will not be smooth sailing, noting: I've got no doubt there'll be a few more jumping up from that mid 21 to low 21, maybe even a high 20 here and there.
“Particularly after the world record, I lost a little bit of that intrinsic motivation. It was almost like a little honeymoon phase off the back of it, but now seeing Igor go 21.0, and a lot of young guns who definitely can be there within two years, it’s definitely stoking the fire again,” McEvoy explained to Olympics.com.
Cameron McEvoy
Having logged sub-21-second performances, the swimmer—who remains the only swimmer to break the 21-second barrier in the post-“Supersuit” era—noted that knowing it’s not a one-off makes me very confident going into the future.
Targeting a Fifth and Sixth Olympic Appearance
As McEvoy prepares for the upcoming Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games—at what would be a fifth Games for the 32-year-old—he believes he is currently in the best shape of his life. Beyond Los Angeles, he maintains an eye on extending his career long enough to potentially swim at a sixth Olympics in Brisbane if able.
While recognizing that it’s getting interesting against a rapidly maturing generation of global sprinters, McEvoy remains focused on fine-tuning his technique, stating that I have some low-hanging fruit I still think I can improve upon between now and then, but I think longer term I can make some progress. He noted that by the time LA comes around, it’s not so much about doing the best time, it’s about getting your hand on the wall first, adding: But if the ceiling is high enough, I’ll have good confidence to know that I don’t have to do a superhuman performance to be in a good shot to medal or to win it.
McEvoy returned to the pool for the men’s 50m freestyle semi-finals on 25 July, with a place in Sunday’s final and another Commonwealth title on the line.
