When Cameron McEvoy stopped the clock at 20.88sec at the end of one length freestyle at the China Open in Shenzhen yesterday, he and his new world record reinforced the hypothesis that the 50m and 100m are diverging into increasingly separate disciplines with distinct athlete profiles.

I've heard it said that we are looking at a 'sprint revolution' or, at least a revolution in the way 'sprinters' prepare in general. I don't believe that's the case.

In McEvoy, we're looking at a sprinter who swam a sizzling 47 flat over 100m a decade ago on the back of a lot of traditional preparation that focussed on speed and endurance and a balance of those and other elements of world-class performance swimming.

He's a pioneer in some regards but not in terms of a trend long gathering momentum, with the likes of Florent Manaudou and Anthony Ervin among those who proved that age is no barrier to being the best you can and perhaps will ever be in a 50m race in your late 20s and early 30s.

Here's what the Olympic podiums in the 50 and 100 free look like in terms of crossover 1988 to 2024, with Caeleb Dressel in 202One the first 50-100 double champion since Alex Popov in 1996:

Year/50-100 Double/Nos on both podiums

• 1988: Matt Biondi (USA) - 1
• 1992: Alex Popov (Unified Team) - 1
• 1996: Alex Popov (Russia) - 2 (Gary Hall Jr. USA)
• 2000: No - 2 (Gary Hall Jr. USA; Pieter van den Hoogenband NED)
• 2004: No - 1 (Roland Schoeman, RSA)
• 2008: No - 1 (Alain Bernard, FRA)
• 2012: No - for the first time ... 0, no crossover
• 2016: No - 1 (Nathan Adrian, USA)
• 2021: Caeleb Dressel USA - 1
• 2024: No - 0, for the second time since 1988

Crossover runs deeper if you look at finals as a whole but even then the trend is for fewer men to make both the 50 and 100m finals. Sarah Sjöström, of Sweden, was the outlier with her double at Paris 2024, but the general trend, while less distinct among women, is also heading towards the 50 becoming a distant class of sprinter in numbers capable of keeping the best 100 folk out.

The 31-year-old Australian sprint ace took the 50 gold in Paris, and the World titles in the years either side of that, in Fukuoka and Singapore. He is doing much less swimming in training these days - and lifting his own weight in the gym.

He's also finding balance between work and 'dad mode', as he described yesterday after his thrilling, flowing, rolling, momentum-builder of a swim that ended with him nailing his mission to the pad like Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses ("Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences") to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. So began a revolution known as the Protestant Reformation.

With a nod to different but not unrelated worlds, what with belief a key factor in all our evolutions in much we do, McEvoy's impact may well last as long as Luther's as a watershed moment in his own church, if humans manage not to erase themselves in the next half millennium, or year.

All of that history is key to understanding the latest evolution on that long journey. It's no different in the shorter span of a swimmer's long career: what McEvoy does today is a critical part of what he's achieving in the pool, but if anyone suggests that what went before can comfortably be overlooked, I'd be among those telling them they err.

I'd be happy to revise that opinion if Cam McEvoy clocks a 47 flat in the 100m and returns to being a member of a title-tilting global/Olympic 4x100m free final at the same time as whistling under 21sec or anything close to that to keep the dash crown or make the podium in LA2028.

Who knows. I think it unlikely. Here's why.