Two-hundredths of a second was all Maggie Mac Neil needed to get her confidence back.

It was at the Commonwealth Games in July 2022 when Mac Neil beat Australia’s Emma McKeon by 0.02 in the 100m butterfly final that she started to feel like herself again.

After achieving an Olympic gold medal in the 100m butterfly in Tokyo after a two-year-long wait, Mac Neil took a long break out of the water. Her confidence took a big hit however after she sustained an elbow injury during her senior year at the University of Michigan. Her coach that helped guide her to Olympic gold, Rick Bishop, had also taken a new job down south at Louisiana State University.

The training was not what she wanted, and the results weren’t what they were the year before. At the 2021 NCAAs as a junior, she won two events and was awarded with the swimmer of the meet honour. As a senior in 2022, she finished third in her best event - the 100 butterfly, despite being the fastest all-time in the event. In the 100 freestyle, an event where she was also the defending champion, she didn’t make the final to finish tenth.

After being on top of the world in 2021, she was knocked down in 2022, and her confidence took a big hit.

Mac Neil elected not to compete individually at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, despite being a favourite to win her third straight 100m butterfly gold medal internationally. Instead, she would only represent Canada on relays where she came home with two silvers and a bronze.

Mac Neil was watching the 100m butterfly final in Budapest from the warm-up pool, but watching the final didn’t bother her as much as she might have thought. In her stead, the Worlds final was won by American Torri Huske (55.64) in a new national record, while France’s Marie Wattel (56.14) broke her own national record for her first individual Worlds medal. China’s Zhang Yufei, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics, won the bronze in Budapest at 56.41.

“A lot of people asked if it was hard watching my best event without me,” Mac Neil told World Aquatics. “Just knowing that I was doing what I needed to do to be ready for most importantly looking down the road to Paris, but what I need to do in the meantime to get myself to where I know I can be and where I should be.”

Mac Neil reunited with her coach Bishop in June 2022 when she moved down to Louisiana to pursue her Master's degree at LSU. And the pair picked up right where they left off in late July at the Commonwealth Games. There, Mac Neil was racing alongside the reigning World swimmer of the year by Swimming World Magazine, Emma McKeon in the 100m butterfly.

Mac Neil was able to win the gold medal on the last stroke at 56.36 to McKeon’s 56.38.

And just like that, she was back.

Reunited - And it Feels So Good

What makes Mac Neil’s relationship with coach Bishop work so well?

“I think it’s just our communication,” Mac Neil said. “We really just hit it off when I first came to Michigan and that was what I missed a lot last year, just the partnership. He will give me ideas and say, ‘I want to do this today. What do you think about that? How is your body feeling? Do you think we could do this set?’

“It’s very much a conversation and last year I was more being told what to do which was a lot harder. I was in sprint group last year which I’ve learned is not what I should be doing. A lot of people are surprised when I say I’m not actually in sprint group - I do quite a bit of aerobic, and I really do like my 300’s pink.”

And Mac Neil has stuck to the process of what she does day to day rather than focusing on that one race at the end of the season. Not focusing on the result is something Mac Neil had to learn the hard way in her swimming career - she still remembers missing a Canadian national age group record by 0.43 seconds when she was 12.

“I kept missing it. That was when I learned that if I solely focus on the time or the outcome, that’s not the best way for me to go in.”

In her final NCAA meet in 2023, a newly focused and reinvigorated Mac Neil took down the favourite Gretchen Walsh in the 50 freestyle to record the fastest time ever in short course yards.

“When I get nervous I tend to get really quiet and overthink things, and analyze every detail,” Mac Neil said. “Usually when I can’t sleep for weeks leading up to it, my brain imagines the best case scenario and everything goes perfect, and then the worst case scenario. I play through both in my mind and definitely going into the 50 free final at NCAAs, I was like, ‘if I go 10.1 like Rick says I should, and I know I can in training, then I can win. But if I don’t, then I definitely come second.’

“That’s the way my brain thinks, and I have a really good memory for numbers and stats, like that’s always going through my mind. I’m channelling nerves and making it more about, ‘I’ve done the work,’ and just showing everyone what I’ve been doing in training has been my mindset, kind of moving into next year where I know the pressure will be at its greatest.”

In the 100 butterfly, she was a part of the first-ever final to have three swimmers break 49 seconds as she swam the second fastest time ever in finishing runner-up to Kate Douglass. Mac Neil was also LSU’s first-ever woman to win an NCAA title in the pool and also helped the school win its first relay title at the SEC Championships since 1986.

Two weeks after NCAAs, she qualified for the World Championships to represent Canada in the 100m butterfly with a 56.54, which puts her second in the world rankings for 2023 behind Zhang Yufei. Despite having only a limited time in the long course training venue, it left her in a good spot for her third World Championships in July.

“This year, it’s just about getting up and racing. My confidence took a pretty big hit last year, just training-wise, and broken elbow-wise, and everything going on after the Olympics. I am definitely back where I know I should be and NCAAs was a great practice too as I was really able to channel my nerves and not get too worked up about anything. Even before the 100 fly (in Tokyo), I wasn’t overthinking it, which is definitely good for me.”

Japan Calling

This time in 2023, Mac Neil will be one of the heavy favourites to not only win back the World title she surprisingly won in 2019 but also to take down the world record by Sarah Sjostrom at 55.48. Mac Neil, along with Zhang and Wattel are within striking distance of that record, as are McKeon and Huske.

On the all-time list, they’re all in the top ten, with Mac Neil (2nd), Zhang (3rd), Huske (4th), and McKeon (5th) in the top five, knocking on the door of the world record that has stood for nearly seven years.

“At this point, there’s four or five of us knocking at the door of that world record,” Mac Neil said. “It’s going to go down eventually whether that’s in the semi or the actual final. I mean, when it comes into the final, it’s whoever is the fastest at that time and whether that’s the fastest time in history or not. I definitely think it’s going to happen this year for sure.”

Mac Neil broke the short course meters 100m butterfly world record in December at the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne at 54.05, beating American Huske in the process.

“It’s always on my mind, and getting the short course one was definitely helpful with that kind of pressure. If I can do it short course then why can’t I do it long course? That’s definitely something I’m thinking about - not wanting to focus on the end product as opposed to what I can do splits and stroke count and kick count leading up to that time.”

Four years ago, Mac Neil was the surprise World champion in the 100m butterfly at the 2019 Worlds in Gwangju, ending Sjostrom’s winning streak in the event that started in 2013 when Mac Neil was just 13. Four years ago, hardly anybody expected the Canadian to win. Now in 2023, she is expected to challenge for Sjostrom’s world record.

“I mean, Worlds are a hit-and-miss right before the Olympics. Everyone is trying out new strategies and seeing how that goes, or are going to be fully in focus mode so it will be really good meet for me. I had a great short course season both yards and meters so I’m definitely excited about what I can do in long course. After only a week of training long course before Trials, I was pleasantly surprised by my times so I am definitely excited to see what I can work on leading into Worlds.

The expectations coming into the meet are way different than they were going into Gwangju, but Mac Neil is trying to replicate that mindset she had four years ago.

“I had seen all the big names but it was kind of eye opening and crazy to be swimming there with them,” Mac Neil said about racing in the 2019 Worlds final. “So that point was just about getting experience and I wasn’t too focused on a time or an outcome. That’s something I have definitely been working on with my mentality going into Paris.

“I wasn’t really too happy with my prelim or semi swim from the (Tokyo) Olympics, like I wasn’t nervous at all for the Olympic final. But that was probably what helped me a lot. I’m trying to channel that more, I’ve done the work and I can’t really focus on the outcome.”