WR Holder Cam McEvoy to Skip Pan Pacs, Sets Focus on Comm Games, Potential LA28 Relay

The fastest swimmer in history, Australia’s Cam McEvoy, has announced that he will forgo the Pan Pacific Championships and focus primarily on the Commonwealth Games this season, while keeping his options open to potentially making an appearance on the Australian 4×100 free relay in Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic Games.

As reported first by The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Tom Decent, McEvoy feels that Australia has a “good shot” at sweeping the freestyle gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and that he will not be competing at Pan Pacs, which come after the Commonwealth Games.

This decision mirrors that of fellow countryman Kyle Chalmers, who announced in March that he would prioritize the Commonwealth Games and thus not race at Pan Pacs.

The Commonwealth Games is also offering cash bonuses, including $20,000 for gold medal finishes, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. A relay gold will also pay $5,000, and a broken World Record brings in $30,000.

McEvoy recently cracked the longstanding 50 freestyle World Record at the China Open, breaking Cesar Cielo‘s 20.91 from 2009 with a blistering 20.88. That race and time is something that McEvoy wants to keep going into the Los Angeles Olympics.

“My one goal is just to prioritise and protect the 50 freestyle for LA. I want to have that title defence centre of my mind.” McEvoy said in a report from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Since that world record, and even before, McEvoy’s name has been circulating as a potential member of Australia’s Olympic 4×100 free relay, a relay that would almost certainly include Chalmers, though it goes against his now-infamous sprint training.

“It’s something I’m curious about,” McEvoy said, “I am very interested in how it would go if I did it. If I can throw a little bit of 100 metre stuff in [to my training] in the time being, that’d be great. As long as it works around the 50.”

In the report, McEvoy said he would be lying if he said he hadn’t been thinking about the potential of swimming on the relay in Los Angeles. The US had historically dominated the event leading up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000, sometimes better known as the “air guitar relay”, where the Australian relay famously downed the US, and celebrated with an air guitar celebration. The US has won each of the last three 4×100 free relay golds, dating back to 2016 in Rio.

“I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it. I’m also going to be four years older in LA compared to Paris. There’s a lot to take into account.: McEvoy said. “I also have no data in terms of how a 100 metre [distance] would go based on my current model. I’ll have a think about it.”

For McEvoy, the Commonwealth Games have been a continuous mountain climb, with no individual Gold yet won in either 2014 or 2018. In 2014, McEvoy secured three silvers across all three sprint freestyle races. He said not having yet won an individual Commonwealth Games gold makes it a priority over resetting his world record.

“This is the one I haven’t won. I’d like to add that to the resume.” McEvoy said in a report from Tom Decent of the Sydney Morning Herald. “But in that process, I’d like to throw down a pretty good time. It is known to be a pretty quick pool over in Glasgow as well. That’s quite enticing to me.”

Another major factor in McEvoy’s decision to skip Pan Pacs is his unwillingness to be away from his family for an extended period.

“At this point in time, I’ve got the world record and I want to get the gold for Commies. I just don’t want to be away from my family for an extended period of time,” McEvoy said. “Pan Pacs adds another three weeks to the trip. [Wife] Maddi and [son] Hartley are staying in Australia for this tour and we’ll go overseas for world shortcourse later in the year.”