Beaten McEvoy praised for incredible act of sportsmanship

Gold medal favourite Cam McEvoy has been praised for his great sportsmanship, after celebrating the victory of his mate Kyle Chalmers.

Despite his own obvious disappointment with finishing seventh as a raging favourite in the 100m freestyle final, McEvoy was quick to hug Chalmers and raise his arm in celebration.

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McEvoy raises Chalmers' arm in victory. Source: Getty

Afterwards, McEvoy spoke glowingly of his Rio teammate and roommate.

"It definitely wasn’t the best of races and I didn’t feel great at all in the race and in the warm up but that’s the sport," McEvoy said.

"You can train eleven-and-a-half months and do the taper and things kind of don’t work out and we’ve seen that more often than not.

"That’s all I can say about myself and I guess the rest of Australia can get excited over a young 18-year-old at the start of his career.

“He’s an Olympic champion at 18 and from what I see he’s got a lot more to improve on. Not to take away from his gold but that’s amazing. Just to see the prospect of what he can achieve after what he can achieve now.

“I’ve been rooming with him this whole Olympic Games and he’s been in the apartment with me and just to see his demeanour and see how relaxed he is and how easily he’s got along with the whole team, he’s just got everything going for him. He’s a great kid, he’s got a great personality and he’s a bloody great swimmer.”

Meanwhile, McEvoy struggled to explain his own performance in the pool.

"It is frustrating because I’d done times like that in training under heavy load ... so it is baffling to me, especially with my analytical mind and hopefully I can get back and pin point what went wrong and try and improve upon that," he said.

"Initially when I dwell on it, it is tough and it’s going to sink in a lot more over the next few weeks but funnily enough it doesn’t feel as gruesome and as raw as coming second at worlds last year did because this is much bigger.

"I imagine it’s because I had Kyle in this race and his success and his happiness, I can feel that and right now I’m kind of riding the wave that he’s on."