Australian McEvoy breaks long-standing 50m freestyle world record

Australia’s Cameron McEvoy broke Cesar Cielo’s long-standing men’s 50 metres freestyle world record on Friday at the China Swimming Open in Shenzhen.

The 31-year-old McEvoy, who followed up his gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024 with a world title last year, clocked 20.88 seconds to eclipse the 20.91 set by Brazilian Cielo in 2009 during the “supersuit” era.

McEvoy said he had been doing “special stuff” in training ahead of the China event.

“I knew I had a chance to do a PB.