By Jim Morris

By doing a little less at the FINA World Championships Margaret Mac Neil hopes to accomplish more in the years leading up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Mac Neil, who won the gold medal in the 100-metre butterfly at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, has decided not to swim any individual events and will concentrate only on relays at the world championships, which begin June 18 in Budapest, Hungary. That means the 22-year-old won’t defend the 100-m fly title she won at the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

Several factors contributed to the decision. After her medal haul at the Olympics and dominating performance at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25-m) in Abu Dhabi, Mac Neil is still learning to live in the celebrity spotlight.

She also dealt with a coaching change during her NCAA season at the University of Michigan and an elbow injury.

“It was a challenging year, a lot of things were changing for me,” said the London, Ont., product who trains at the High Performance Centre – Ontario. “A bunch of factors just weren’t lining up for me.

“My training was significantly different. I wanted to take this summer, go back to Toronto and be able to focus on what I was doing and kind of get back to where I was, the headspace and physically.”

Mac Neil won the 100-m fly at the recent Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria, earning herself a spot on the 32-member team competing at the world championships.

Besides her individual gold medal in Tokyo, Mac Neil was part of 4×100-m freestyle relay that captured silver and the 4×100-m medley team that brought home bronze in Canadian record time.

“I’m excited to focus on relays,” she said. “There’s some really great things we can do. With the different people that are going to be there, and not going to be there, I think we have a good shot at winning some of the relays. I’m excited to help contribute to that.”

Mac Neil has enjoyed tremendous success over the last year.

In October, Mac Neil received the Best Female Athlete of Tokyo award from the Association of National Olympic Committees.

In December, she won four gold medals and set a world record in the 50-m backstroke at the short-course world championships. In March she was named NCAA Big Ten Championships Swimmer of the Meet for the third time after winning three individual races and two relay titles.

She also was named Swimming Canada’s Female Swimmer of the Year.

The bright light of attention can be blinding.

“It’s been crazy in that sense,” she said. “Everyone that I’ve ever come across, whether they knew me or not, suddenly knows who I am. That in itself has been really different.”

Having climbed to the top of the ladder, Mac Neil wasn’t sure what her next step would be.

“The pressure when it comes to defending a title has been getting to me a lot more than it had in the past,” she said. “The whole expectation of an Olympic champion is a lot in itself.

“I kind of felt lost in the fact did I didn’t really know what to accomplish next. What drives me is wanting to get this time, going for that record, making this team. Learning to live with not having a goal or something specific that I’m trying to do, I think that’s something I’m working towards.”

Not going to the world championships wasn’t an option.

“I would let the team down if I wasn’t there,” she said. “It’s only my second world championships, so the more experience and the more times I can get on the world stage, I want to take advantage of that.”

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, the 100-fly silver medallist in 2019, and Australia’s Emma McKeon, the world and Olympic bronze medallist, are also not expected to compete in Budapest.

“The whole podium from 2019 will be completely different,” said Mac Neil. “I think it may motivate all of us.”

Mac Neil also has been nursing an injury after slipping and falling on the pool deck during the NCAA championships. What she first thought was a bad bruise on her left elbow was later diagnosed as a osteochondral fracture, which meant a piece of her elbow had broken off and was floating around in her arm.

“It doesn’t bother me as much in the pool but it’s definitely impacted my land and weight training,” she said.

Mac Neil plans to swim the 100 fly at the Commonwealth Games later this summer. In the fall she will transfer to the University of California, Berkeley, where she will swim while pursuing her master’s in education.

Long term, she remains focused on the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“It will probably be my last Olympics,” said Mac Neil. “I want to swim world championships and other major international meets, but they’re stepping stones to the Olympics, which is ultimately the bigger goal right now.”

Being an Olympic champion has impacted Mac Neil’s life but hasn’t changed her love of the sport.

“I’m definitely happy,” she said. “Swimming is what I love doing.”