Swimming World Championships: The dream lives on for Cam McEvoy as he wins gold in 50m freestyle

Cam McEvoy, now an Olympic and world champion, doesn’t know when he’ll swim again.

“But I’m not stopping,” McEvoy said.

“Imagine telling myself in 2022 this is where I’d be - you couldn’t write a script like that.

“The dream lives on, right? My story just goes for a while.”

McEvoy almost quit the sport in 2022.

After much soul-searching he continued, vowed to do things his way, and created his own revolutionary training regime.

Now, he’s the Olympic and world champion in the 50m freestyle.

In Singapore on Saturday night, the 31-year-old became Australia’s oldest gold medallist at a world championships - three weeks after becoming a dad for the first time.

“Shoutout to (wife) Maddi at home, I couldn’t be here without her; shoutout to Hartley, my three-week-old son,” he said.

“I’m going straight to the newborn trenches.

“I’ll start to do the night routines, help Maddi, and just enjoy the bubble, really.

“It sounds cliche, but win or lose, I’m going home a winner.

“It has given me a new light on the sport, on life, something new to navigate.

“And I’ll see where it takes me in the future.”

McEvoy’s latest success came as Kaylee McKeown captured another gold on Saturday night, in the women’s 200m backstroke.

McKeown has now completed 100-200 backstroke golden doubles at her past two world championships, and also at last year’s Olympics.

“I wasn’t feeling too great heading in, a bit of illness and stuff going around, dealing with a bit of a shoulder (injury),” said McKeown, who dislocated a shoulder leading into the titles.

“I dug really deep.”

Australia’s Lani Pallister (women’s 800m freestyle) and Alexandria Perkins (women’s 50m butterfly) also collected silver on Saturday night.

Australia, with seven gold, four silver and six bronze medals, enter Sunday’s final night of competition behind only the United States (seven, 11, seven) on the medal tally.