Australia v World Duel Meet: Will Cam McEvoy Rule The World For The Dolphins ?
The world’s fastest man Cam McEvoy will be right in his element in Brisbane tonight with the inclusion of a unique 3 x 25m freestyle sprint series when Australia hosts The World in an innovative Duel Meet in the 2032 Olympic city’s historic Valley Pool.
Th 31-year-old Olympic and two-time world champion over 50m freestyle has been instrumental in the re-emergence of the “Skins style” international meet, first swum in 1996 as The Qantas Skins and was on display yesterday with the array of the sports biggest names were on show for a pre-meet press conference and fan day.
The original Skins, packing the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre, making a huge public and broadcast impact in the lead up to Sydney 2000, with swimming officials turning the clock back as Australia builds up to Brisbane 2032.
Australia showed it was ahead of its time in an event which captured the imagination of swimmers, administrators and sponsors alike – putting the sport on the promotional map.
The 2025 version will be going back-to-the-future almost 30 years on, including the original Skins Series of elimination 50m events across all stokes, the Mystery Medley and 400m freestyle but now including the 25m Series and a host of mystery and power play relays in a pointscore based Duel Meet.
The Qantas Skins meets that moved into the 2000s featuring the likes of Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Michael Klim, Matt Welsh, Geoff Huegill, Leisel Jones, Giaan Rooney and Libby Trickett up against the sports biggest international names of the time – Michael Phelps, Pieter van den Hoogenband, Alex Popov, Inge de Bruijn, Jenny Thompson and Aaron Peirsol.
DOLPHINS TRIPLE TREAT: Lani Pallister Mollie O’Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).
Tonight, Australia will be led by McEvoy, fellow world 50m sprint champion Meg Harris and Olympic and world champions, Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister and Zac Stubblety-Cook up against Netherlands super star Marrit Steenbergen and Olympic champions Thomas Ceccon (ITA), British pair Duncan Scott and Tom Dean, Germany’s Lucas Martens.
McEvoy saying he hopes the format will (again) become a regular part of the Australian swimming calendar as the sport heads towards LA28 and a home Games in Brisbane 32.
“It’s awesome. It’s got the 3x 25m events, so I’m loving that,” said McEvoy.
“To get the World Team that they have to come out to Brisbane at this time of year is impressive and I think the calibre of athletes here shows that this format is needed and that people are looking for this within the sport.
“I would love to see a full series made out of this and to compete in venues all over Australia.
“Swimming has been the same product for some time … other sports have evolved and absorbed exciting, fast paced, short-form versions of themselves and had success.
“Swimming needs to continue to test this within our own sport in the hope of finding a niche product that will excite the public.”
McEvoy said his career is “still on the experimental side…..doing new things every season … I basically was only doing gym until about four weeks ago.
“I’m moving well, I feel good and I’m throwing weights around pretty well in the gym. So, I’ll continue to do that for as long as it’s fun.”
McKeown saying: “It’s so important to get a home crowd invested in the sport of swimming and I think we go really unrecognised, considering we bring the most amount of Olympic medals … I’m excited because this is almost like a bit of training and I love training, probably a little bit more than racing, so I’m interested to see how this goes.”
Ceccon also preparing for a second stint with Australia’s number one coach Dean Boxall at St Peters Western.
“To have the top athletes of the world versus the top athletes of Australia should be fun…..” said Ceccon.
“I’m always doing different events but this competition is quite different, so it could be finer (better) than normal. The idea (of Australia vs The World is…. fantastic.
“I’m doing one, two months here with Dean Boxall.
“For us, it’s a different time in Australia. We are done with short course, and we start long course from January, so it’s a fresh start.
“I’m here for the weather, for training with Dean, for training differently. I’m glad to be here. I love Dean. I love training, so I’m happy to be back.”
WORLD BEATERS: Thomas Ceccon (ITA) and Erika Fairweather (NZL) Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
- When: Friday 12 December, 6.30-10.00pm AEST
- Where: The Valley Pool, Brisbane
AUSTRALIA v THE WORLD – RULES EXPLAINER AND TEAMS