This is The Guardian.

Today, why elite athletes are openly doping for the year's biggest sporting spectacle. So. I was always talented in the water, right? I always had a natural affinity to water and it's a place of peace, right?

When you put your head under the water, there's no one's talking to you, it's just you

and your thoughts are you just pushing yourself.

So there's that part I always love. But my dream was always like when you're a little kid

is a win the Olympic gold medal. As you get older, you start understanding how rare that is.

So it kind of shifted towards, you know, just making an Olympic Games.

Meet Max McCusker.

He's an elite swimmer with the shoulders to prove it.

Max trained with military discipline in his childhood.

Six to eight sessions a week, entering every competition going.

And it paid off.

All right, they're off now for the last final of day two here at the national championships.

Look at that breakout from McCusker.

He represented Ireland as a finalist in the European and World Championships.

Three strokes to go.

McCusker wins at 23, 44.

That's pretty slick.

I missed the Tokyo 2024. That's pretty slick. I missed the Tokyo 2021 games by a couple of hundreds of a second maybe.

But Max did make it to the Olympics.

Paris 2024.

You'd have thought this was just the beginning of a glorious career, an Olympian, representing

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