Elijah Winnington makes shock move away from Dean Boxall to train with sprint king Cam McEvoy
The remarkable rise of Cam McEvoy as the fastest man in history in the water has convinced a prominent Australian Olympian to do what few swimmers do – leave Dean Boxall’s esteemed program at St Peters Western in Brisbane and embark on a radical new training program ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
Elijah Winnington, a silver medallist in the men’s 400m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics, said he had an “epiphany” after last month’s Pan Pacific Championships in California: he wanted to join McEvoy and his coach, Tim Lane, at Somerville House.
It sets up one of the more intriguing coaching moves in Australian swimming in recent years, with Winnington, a middle-distance swimmer, hoping to apply similar principles to those that helped transform McEvoy into the world’s fastest 50m freestyler.
“Everyone called Cam crazy when he started his journey, and he changed the sprint world,” Winnington said ahead of next week’s Australian shortcourse trials in Sydney.
“We’re confident we can do pretty close to the same in middle-distance swimming. I’m just taking the leap of courage.”
Boxall, one of the most in-demand swimming coaches in the world, has mentored the likes of Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack to Olympic glory.
He has a proven track record of getting the best out of swimmers, with few established athletes leaving his program.
But at the halfway mark of the Olympic cycle, following results during the past two years that fell short of his expectations, Winnington sat down with Boxall and broke the news that he wanted to leave and reunite with his former training partner McEvoy.
With Australian teammate Sam Short getting the better of Winnington in the 400m freestyle during the past two years, the 26-year-old believes he needs to try something different if he is to return to his best before the Los Angeles Olympics in less than two years.
“There were no hard feelings or bad blood at all,” Winnington said. “I said, ‘Look, it’s not fair on you, it’s not fair on me, and it’s not fair on the other people in this squad to ask you to spend this much time with me on something that is going to be new to develop’.
“It’s not necessarily something that’s proven or just been done before. It’s just the type of change that I’m needing.
“Dean took it really well. We’ve always had a really good relationship. It was obviously super emotional because everything that I’ve achieved in my professional swimming career has been under him. I really acknowledged him for that, but he completely understood. I’m trying to be back at my best.
“The move isn’t because I don’t believe in Dean’s program.”
After the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs, Winnington knew he could have stayed with Boxall and continued making Australian teams. But if he wanted to return to the very top of world swimming, he felt something had to change.
McEvoy’s secret weapon has been Lane, who flies under the radar compared to many of the other coaches on the Australian team.
Lane and McEvoy devised a revolutionary training program in 2022, built around dramatically reduced swimming volume, greater specificity and targeted gym work. It helped propel McEvoy, who had effectively walked away from the sport, to world championship, Olympic and Commonwealth Games glory. Lane has also coached Korean world champion Park Tae-hwan, a middle-distance swimmer.
Winnington will not simply copy McEvoy’s program. Their events are too different for that. Instead, he plans to take the philosophy behind McEvoy’s reinvention and apply it to the 400m, with fewer training kilometres, greater intensity and an increased emphasis on improving strength and maintaining a perfect technique.
“When you get up to 70 kilometres a week, it’s physically impossible to hold that stroke for that long,” Winnington said.
“It’s definitely different to traditional training, but it’s not idiotic, right? It’s not like I’m doing just a couple of kilometres a week and just cross my fingers and hope I’ll be right.
“Tim is the most humble guy ever. He will never take credit or say he does anything. That’s probably why he does fly under the radar a lot. Tim is just really passionate … and it is athlete led.
“It’s almost like Cam is a glorified assistant coach of mine now. Cam’s very passionate about this … and he’s almost as excited as I am.”
Tom Decent is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.