He paved the way for this historic achievement by clinching victory in the 50m final and meeting Swimming Australia's Olympic qualification criteria at the Paris 2024 trials. McEvoy blazed through the one-lap sprint in a time of 21.35 seconds.

Joining McEvoy in Paris will be 22-year-old Ben Armbruster, who secured second place with a time of 21.84, guaranteeing his debut in the Olympics. Exhausted from 18 years of intense swimming training, McEvoy decided to step away from the sport following the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Upon his comeback, he significantly reduced his weekly training distance by up to 40 kilometers, underwent substantial muscle gain, and delved into various other athletic disciplines. McEvoy became a student of diverse sports such as track sprinting, javelin throwing, weightlifting, gymnastics, and even speed skating.

He firmly believes that without the significant overhaul, he would have bid farewell to swimming for good. McEvoy now embraces the belief that he can compete in the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, envisioning himself still swimming at the age of 38.

McEvoy has achieved remarkable results since his return to competitive swimming, effortlessly breaking the 22-second barrier and attaining the status of a world champion. In Fukuoka last year, he secured the 50m freestyle world title and demolished the Australian record, blazing through the race in an astonishing 21.06 seconds.

"About 18 months ago my goal was to just come back, give this new training approach a go, see what happens and if I can maybe go under 22 (seconds) again I'd be over the moon with that," McEvoy told reporters on Wednesday night.

"So what I've done so far has just obliterated any expectations I had. With that, I'm most excited to get this done and then just compile what I've learnt and just push it out there into the public. It's pretty unreal. The job's not done yet, but awesome.

"I know there's a tremendous amount of swimmers who have been in my position, currently are in my position who would want to learn from that, a lot of coaches want to learn from that, and I think I can provide a lot of good to a lot of athletes who love the sport, but they're not quite on the right path in terms of the type of training and the philosophy and everything. So looking past Paris, I'm very excited to do my best to help people out that way."

Breaststroke champion Leisel Jones, freestyle standout Cate Campbell, and backstroke veteran Emily Seebohm have represented Australia in four Olympic Games, with the latter two striving to become five-time Olympians in Paris. The significance of McEvoy's imminent accomplishment is not overlooked by the Gold Coast native.

"It's special because you could almost fill a book with legendary Aussie male names in the sport, so to have the privilege of having that title under my belt (becoming the first male Australian swimmer to compete at four Olympic Games), having that type of longevity," Seebohm said.

"I think ultimately it just makes me proud because it shines a light on the persistence and perseverance that I've had over ... my entire career, but particularly over the last seven years. I'll do my best to honour it over in Paris and we'll see what happens with LA (the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics) to come and whatever happens after Paris."