2025 Swammy Awards: Oceanian Male Swimmer of the Year – Cameron McEvoy

See all of our 2025 Swammy Awards here.

If 2024 was about overcoming the pressure cooker that is the Olympic Games, then 2025 was about proving that he and his training was not only the way to go but ensuring that he would be the one to beat. And just like he rose to the occasion in Paris, winning not only his first Olympic Gold but his first individual medal of any color, Australia’s Cameron McEvoy did so again earning his 2nd individual World title, by winning the 50 free in Singapore.

After having won in Fukuoka and then last summer overcoming his Olympic demons, with the win in Paris, McEvoy entered 2025 as the odds on favorite to win in Singapore. In April of this year he won the 50 free at the Australian Open Championships (a tune up of sorts for Australian Trials) in 21.48, nearly half a second ahead of Jamie Jack‘s 21.95. A few months later he posted a world leading 21.30, winning by .38 over fellow sprinter Kyle Chalmers at the Australian Trials, adding yet another sub-21.50 swim to his name, and coming with just .05 of his Olympic medal winning time of 21.25.

In Singapore, McEvoy put on a masterclass performance improving from round to round, conserving his energy when needed but never being in danger of missing out on advancing. In prelims his 21.53, advanced him as the 4th fastest swimmer into the semifinals where he posted a season-best equaling time of 21.30 to secure the top seed and center lane.

Flanked by the USA’s Jack Alexy (21.32) and Serbia’s Andrej Barna (21.45), McEvoy started the final as the favorite and lived up to expectation blasting out a 21.14 to claim the gold, .12 ahead of Great Britain’s Ben Proud and .32 ahead of Alexy’s 21.46. The Australian’s time, his third fastest ever trailing only his PB of 21.06 from Fukuoka and his 21.13 from the Doha Worlds, was .11 faster than his Olympic winning time and registered as the 11th fastest performance of all time.

While his gold medal winning performance and time would be enough to win the 2025 Swammy, McEvoy continued his dominance in the event as just last month, the Australian swam yet another sub-21.50 time, as he won the 2025 Japan Open with a result of 21.38. While sub-21.50 is an arbitrary benchmark, with this swim, McEvoy has now posted the most swims under this mark, having now done so 19 times, breaking his tie with fellow sprinter Ben Proud (who revealed earlier this year his intentions to continue his career with the Enhanced Games).

Swimmers Who Have Been Under 21.50 in the 50 Free (Long Course)

What perhaps is more laudable is the fact that of those 19 performances, 18 of them have come from the 2023 and on, from when McEvoy was aged 29 or older. His fastest time from before 2023, when he shifted to a new training regime, was 21.44 from the 2015 Australian Olympic Trials, a time that ranks as his 17th fastest.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Kyle Chalmers – Chalmers added yet another 100 free medal to his trophy case, as he collected the bronze via his 47.17 at Worlds. His time, his 4th fastest of his career was faster than both his Olympic gold medal winning time from Rio (47.58) and his silver medal winning time from last summer’s Olympics in Paris (47.48). While his bronze rounds out the trio of individual 100 free medal, adding to his gold from Fukuoka and silver from Gwangju, Chalmer’s performance on his nation’s 4×100 free relay is what makes him a close second to McEvoy on this list. After Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximillian Giuliani put the Australians into 3rd, Chalmers took over and dropped a hammer of an anchor leg going 46.53 (the fastest in the field) to bring the Aussie not only to the top of the podium but also to a new Championship and Oceanian record of 3:08.97. Individually it was his 5th summer in a row splitting under 46.60, but the overall time, in addition to the aforementioned records, clocked in as the 3rd fastest time ever, trailing only the 3:08.24 and 3:08.32 put up by the USA and French squads at the super suited 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
• Sam Short – After missing out on the medals in Paris at the Olympics, Short looked to be on a revenge tour at the 2025 Australian Swimming Trials, winning the 400/800/1500 triple and taking 2nd in the final of the 200 free with a new personal best of 1:45.71. However, Short’s success was cut down as the Australian distance swimmer was struck with a case of food poising forcing him to withdraw from the 800 free final, where he was the 2nd seed. Before that however, Short came within .02 of defeating the World Record holder in the 400 free, Germany’s Lukas Martens, who came passed Short in the last 50 to win 3:42.35 to 3:42.37, adding a silver to Short’s medal haul. The Aussie did recover from his bout of illness to swim the 1500 free, where he finished in 14:43.08, his second fastest performance ever.
• Harrison Turner – Turner’s senior international debut came at the short course World Championships last December, where he was only called up after Kaylee McKeown withdrew, and that turned into a springboard for a fantastic year for the Nudgee college swimmer. He took a year-long break from the sport after the Tokyo Olympic Trials, but has now blossomed into Australia’s premier 200 flyer and broke the longstanding super-suited national record held by Nick D’Arcy this summer, clocking 1:54.17 to win bronze in Singapore out of lane 8. Turner had a best of 1:57.07 coming into 2025, and hacked nearly three seconds off this year to establish himself as a bona fide medal contender. Podiums at one or both of the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs next summer seem probable (taken from Sam Blacker’s article on breakout swimmer of the year)

Past Winners:

• 2024 – Cameron McEvoy, Australia
• 2023 – Sam Short, Australia
• 2022 – Zac Stubblety-Cook, Australia
• 2021 – Zac Stubblety-Cook, Australia
• 2020 – Matt Wilson, Australia
• 2019 – Matt Wilson, Australia
• 2018 – Kyle Chalmers, Australia
• 2017 – Mack Horton, Australia
• 2016 – Kyle Chalmers, Australia
• 2015 – Mitch Larkin, Australia
• 2014 – Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Australia
• 2013 – Christian Sprenger, Australia