Just hours after becoming Australia’s oldest Olympic swimming gold medallist, Cam McEvoy delivered a heart-melting message to his partner Madeline Bone.
The 30-year-old McEvoy stunned Paris in the men’s 50m freestyle, and the physics student was all class after winning his first Olympic final and rewriting the history books.
McEvoy later appeared on live TV and watched his swim over again with a critical eye.
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He was then asked what he thought about his golden performance.
‘“I go straight to the analytical mind … the touch wasn’t great,” he said on Nine.
“And second … I’ve never celebrated like that after a race. I’m usually reserved …. pretty kicked back, but yeah, I was like hitting the water, jumped up on the land rope and everything.”
He said his spontaneous celebration was undoubtedly due to his bumpy athletics journey.
Following the Tokyo Games three years ago, he took a break from the sport. He then returned with a revolutionary training regime.
“It’s been a long road,” he said.
“This is my fourth Olympics. and the context of how different these Olympics are to what the other ones have been in terms of everything, preparation, life, just going into the race as well … and yeah, it was just elation.”
McEvoy was then put on the spot and asked about his partner, Madeline Bone.
Together, they are a high-powered couple with Bone a PhD candidate at Griffith University, specialising in surgery research, and McEvoy (nicknamed The Professor) a phsyics and maths student who wants to be an astronaut.
McEvoy took a moment before telling the world how much he loved Bone.
He was gushing in his praise for her, explained how they worked as a team, supported each other, and were uniformed in their approach to life.
“The love is endless … it’s infinite,” McEvoy said, with his eloquence and honesty even stunning the network’s hosts.
Australian swimming great Ian Thorpe said McEvoy’s story was incredible.
“I am so happy for Cam McEvoy,” Thorpe said on the commentary.
“We waited so long to see this athlete be the athlete that he actually is.
“He has been able to deliver what he’s always wanted to accomplish, what he’s always wanted to do. And what we’ve always known he could do.
“I love that Cam McEvoy has owned everything that he has set himself out to do. He’s taken full ownership and full disclosure, (saying) ‘this is what I am setting myself up for (and) this is what I want to accomplish’.”
McEvoy famously rewrote his training manual after Tokyo, and the endless kilometres staring at the black line on the bottom of a pool were replaced by rock climbing and calisthenics among other left-field activities.
“It’s hard to explain the two-year process that it took to get here and the route I took,” he said.
“That act of creation, effectively, over the last two years … being the guinea pig and seeing where it would take me, is something that I’m going to be most proud of.”
And now he’s contemplating swimming at the Brisbane Olympics as a 38-year-old.
“If the motivation is there and the body is holding up, I don’t see why not,” he said.
– With AAP
