Breaststroker Gideon Burnes missed the Commonwealth Games by the barest of margins, and he’s doing everything he can to shave off time on the road to LA 2028.
Quite literally.
The 20-year-old has spent the two months since the Australian Swimming Trials growing a sizeable beard to create extra drag in the water, figuring if he can swim fast with it, he’ll be even faster without it.
This week, the beard finally came off ahead of the Australian Short Course Championships, where Burnes is chasing a new personal best.
“The last time I had a clean face was probably before trials around the 10th of July, so it’s been a little while,” Burnes said.
“Every millisecond counts, and when you’ve got a face full of hair, there’s a lot of drag, which is what you don’t want.
“You get in the water after a shave and you just feel good — you’re a lot more aware of how you’re moving through the water.
“Over a 100-metre breaststroke, it could mean taking a second off my time and over a 50-metre, it could be half a second.
“It’s probably 60 per cent mental, definitely more mental than physical, but hopefully it can prepare me for a good PB at the short course championships.”
While Burnes acknowledges much of the advantage may be psychological, he has conducted his own experiment to test the theory.
“Look good, feel good, swim fast — it’s a thing,” Burnes said.
“I did a little experiment two years ago at long course states where I compared my swim times unshaven and shaven.
“In the 50-metre relay, I swam 28.2 unshaven and in my individual swim, I did the same time after shaving.
“With a relay’s flying start, you usually go about 0.7 faster, so the fact I did the same time across both made me think the shave was worth about 0.7 seconds.”
A few tenths of a second have taken on even greater significance for Burnes this year.
He touched second in the 50m breaststroke at July’s Commonwealth Games Trials behind eventual Games champion Sam Williamson, but his 27.37 fell just 0.44 outside Swimming Australia’s automatic qualifying standard.
It left Burnes’ fate in the hands of selectors, but the call never came.
Rather than dampen his ambitions, the near miss has added fuel to Burnes’ push towards the Olympics.
And the beard is only one part of the work being done.
“Skills have been the main focus of every session ahead of the short course champs,” Burnes said.
“We’ve been doing more high-quality sessions in the 25-metre pool to focus on turns, starts and just banking as many good skills as we can.
“Last year, I dropped the 200-metre breaststroke from my program to focus on the 50 and 100, which has allowed me to work on my speed and power.
“As well as shaving, I do a lot of cupping and acupressure around my events and if I’m on top of those things, I know I’m going to race fast.
“But the shave is the biggest thing - I grow a lot of hair, so I know if I can swim fast at training with all of this hair, it gives me confidence for racing that it can all come together.”
The Australian Short Course Swimming Championships run from 29th September to 2nd October at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.