Phelps adds to his events

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Olympian Michael Phelps will compete in two freestyle races in the World Swimming Championships, looking to expand his skills before the 2008 Olympic Games.

Michael Phelps is in college. He has been experimenting. On Sunday, he will show the world what he has learned.

Phelps, the United States’ most celebrated athlete of the 2004 Athens Games, will hope to make an international splash in the 100- and 400-meter freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Montreal. Phelps is not a traditional freestyle swimmer and has never competed internationally in the 100 free.

‘’I'm looking forward to being able to swim new events that I’m not used to swimming in world events,'’ said Phelps, a student at the University of Michigan.

The change in Phelps’ international regiment offers a sensational match-up against Australian Grant Hackett. Hackett enters the world championships trying to become the first swimmer in a world championship or Olympics to win four gold medals in four individual freestyle events: 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 free. Entering Montreal, Hackett is three seconds faster than Phelps in the 400. The meet runs through July 31.

Whether Phelps is planning to change his international regiment for the 2008 Beijing Games or whether the young phenom is simply adding a little spice to the swimming world is still unclear. To make room for the 100 and 400 free, Phelps dropped two of his strongest events, the 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley. In a teleconference Tuesday, Phelps referred to the world championships as a ‘’baby step'’ on the road to Beijing. He made it clear that nothing is “set in stone.'’

‘’Obviously, I’ve never done this, so it keeps it exciting,'’ Phelps said.

“I want to try new things and have everything set in stone by Beijing.'’

This will be Phelps’ first major international competition since winning more individual medals than any American in one single Olympic Games.

‘’I really feel like this meet will give a true picture of where Mike is fitness wise and where he stands since Athens,'’ said Bob Bowman, Phelps’ coach. “Then we can move forward. This is the first step in preparing for Beijing.'’

This will be Phelps’ third world championships. He competed in the 2001 and 2003 and has won seven medals (five gold and two silver).

Though Phelps hasn’t competed internationally since Athens, the Baltimore native has been quite busy. The highlights include judging the Ms. United States Pageant, appearing on the sidelines during the Super Bowl and a parade through Baltimore.

Phelps has also been the subject of a documentary, which chronicles the everyday life of the international superstar, and the subject of several racy Speedo advertisements.

‘’A year ago I wouldn’t even think my life would be like this,'’ Phelps said. “I’ve had a lot of ups and down. The ups have been really high, and the downs have been really low. But it has been life.'’

The low Phelps referred to was his November DUI arrest. Phelps has attributed the incident to post-Olympic Games depression.

‘’Things can happen in a blink of an eye,'’ Phelps said. “My head wasn’t on straight. It is something I can learn a lot from and something I can pass on to others.'’

More than anything, Phelps says moving away from home and into his Ann Arbor, Mich., town house has helped in the maturing process. He trains with the Wolverine swimming team but does not compete becausehe is a professional athlete.

‘’I have to cook and clean and go the grocery store myself,'’ Phelps said.

Living alone should play to Phelps’ personality. After all, he is a swimmer. He returns to his true comfort zone Sunday.

Evolving Phelps not just treading water

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This time, it’s not about the gold. At the world swimming championships, which start Sunday in Montreal, Michael Phelps aims to take nothing more than “baby steps.”

Michael Phelps is using the world championships to hone his skills for the 2008 Olympic Games. “I’m still learning about swimming, 12 years into it,” he says.
By Tom Strattman, AP

“I just want to go in and race, to find little things I can work on and improve,” Phelps says.

Phelps’ trophy haul at last year’s Summer Olympics was no little thing. He won eight medals, six gold, leaving Athens the most decorated athlete of a non-boycotted Games.

But he’ll dive back into highly competitive waters at Montreal a work in progress. Just as his arrest on a DUI charge in November reminded everyone — above all, the 20-year-old Phelps — that he’s still growing as a person, his plan for Montreal shows he still is developing as a swimmer.

“I’m still learning about swimming, 12 years into it,” he says.

Phelps has not backed off his ambitious program. He intends to swim in five individual events and three relays, as he did in Athens.

But he has dropped two of the events he dominates most, the 400-meter individual medley and 200-meter butterfly, to make room in his packed schedule for the 100- and 400-meter freestyles, where he will be an underdog.

Phelps’ fearsome finishing kick gives U.S. teammate Jason Lezak and South Africans Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling a reason to start strong and keep their distance in the 100, but a Phelps win would be a significant upset. Australian Grant Hackett’s best time this year in the 400 is more than three seconds faster than Phelps’.

“A lot of the international guys are taking a step back,” says Dave Salo, U.S. men’s coach for worlds. He notes that Australia’s Ian Thorpe and the Netherlands’ Pieter van den Hoogenband — the only swimmers to beat Phelps in an individual event in Athens — won’t be in Montreal. “But Michael’s a pretty focused, determined individual.”

For Phelps this is about a much longer race, one that ends at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Experience in the 100 makes him a stronger teammate in the 400 free relay, an event the USA hasn’t won for five years. The 400 forces him to work on his freestyle stroke and his pacing for distance events.

In an approach that seems un-American for its patience, Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, have chucked instant gratification to work toward an audacious prospect for Beijing: Win it all.

“The only thing Michael can focus on now to improve his legacy or his swimming performance is 2008,” Bowman says. “There’s not much he can do in 2005 except get ready for 2008, and that’s how I kind of look at it.”

Coming back to earth

Gilding much of the pomp over Phelps last year was the promise his youth holds. The Mark Spitz standard, seven golds in one Games, still looms. Phelps has one, maybe two, more chances to clear it. He will be just 23 in Beijing.

Out of the pool, his aging process accelerated to a sprint the last 12 months. From promotional appearances to the DUI arrest to his first semester at the University of Michigan, where he would like to get a degree in sports management, Phelps went from a somewhat carefree teen living with his mom in suburban Baltimore to a young adult juggling responsibilities.

“I’ve seen him have to grow up pretty quickly,” says American Ian Crocker, Phelps’ nemesis in the 100 fly who, because they have the same agent, has spent a lot of time doing appearances with Phelps. “He’s got a lot of hats he wears. I’ve seen him do a pretty good job of balancing all that.”

Crocker and Phelps went almost directly from Athens to a U.S. bus tour. Phelps also did the overnight celebrity circuit, including The Tonight Show. By the time he arrived in Indianapolis in early October for the world short course championships, his back was stiff, his focus frayed. Phelps won his first race, the 200 free, then withdrew.

The back injury was not serious but kept him out of the pool for five weeks. During that time, on Nov. 4, he ran a stop sign in Salisbury, Md., where he was visiting friends. A state trooper pulled him over and administered roadside sobriety tests and a Breathalyzer. Phelps recorded a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, the legal limit in Maryland for driving under the influence.

“I think it was kind of easy after Athens to feel like maybe he operated in a little different set of rules than the average person,” says Bowman, who has coached Phelps for nine years. “I think that kind of brought him down to earth in a rather dramatic way, but certainly a demonstrative way.”

Prosecutors agreed to drop the DUI charge when Phelps pleaded guilty to the lesser driving while impaired. He was fined $250 and sentenced to 18 months’ probation, including speaking at several Maryland schools. Last weekend he did his third and final Wicomico County community-service appearance.

“What I wanted to do was afterwards just come and say it, man up to making a mistake and learning from it and helping other people not to make that mistake,” Phelps says. “A year ago, I don’t know if I would have done that or not.”

Getting used to new routines

By December, he had moved to Ann Arbor to join Bowman, the Wolverines’ new men’s swim coach. Phelps bought a townhouse and enrolled in two spring classes, public speaking and kinesiology.

The transition from childhood friends and coming home to an empty place, where he has to do his laundry and cooking, was rocky, he says. He found peace in the pool.

“It’s always been sort of his refuge,” Bowman says. “It’s also a world where he does everything right, and everybody tells him that and tells him, ‘You’re the greatest.’ ”

Because he’s a professional athlete, Phelps is not eligible to compete for the University of Michigan. But as a volunteer assistant coach, he does train with the Wolverines, an arrangement that pushes him as much as it does them.

“I’m not used to training with somebody next to me and racing every single day, every single stroke,” says Phelps, who adds that his turns, traditionally one of the weaker parts of his swims, “have been coming around” because of the challenge.

Phelps also is practicing relays with the Michigan swimmers. That, with his attention to the 100 free, could help quiet the questions that frothed when the 2004 Olympic coaches put him on the 400 free relay team even though he didn’t swim the 100 free individually in Athens. The team finished third.

“Michael still has a long way to go with regards to developing his relay expertise,” Salo says. “A lot of that is his lack of doing a lot of the relays, as much as the college guys do. … Their relay-exchange speed is so much better than Michael’s generally is. I think Michael sees that he needs to improve that aspect of his skill, and certainly having that experience is going to help the coaches a lot more.”

Ultimately, it also could help Phelps in his pursuit of perfection at Beijing. If the USA wins all three relays — in Athens the U.S. men won handily in the 400 medley relay and narrowly in the 800 free relay — it puts the brass ring of eight golds well within the reach of his extraordinary wingspan.

But those are debates and medal tallies for three years hence. Phelps is likely to make fewer headlines with his current mantra: “Baby steps to Beijing.”

“We’ve kind of put him in a situation where maybe people are going to see he really has goals other than to make sure he wins a gold medal every time,” Bowman says.

Phelps is making sure he’s ready to win gold at the time when the world again will be watching.

Phelps eyes another Olympian feat at world championships

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Michael Phelps just can’t slow down.

Eleven months after a seemingly once-in-a-lifetime Olympic performance, America’s swimming phenom is gearing up for a similarly challenging schedule at the world championships, which begin Sunday in Montreal.

Call it an Athens Redux.

“He would like to push himself to a new level,” said Bob Bowman, Phelps’ longtime coach.

Bowman had projected Greece as the likely peak of Phelps’ career. He was experienced enough to be one of the world’s best in several strokes, but young enough — only 19 at the time — to handle the physical toll of swimming eight events in eight days.

Phelps certainly fulfilled his coach’s prophecy, capturing six golds and a record-tying haul of eight medals overall.

Now, instead of backing off in a biennial championship that won’t bring nearly as much attention in the U.S. — even with Montreal being just across the border — Phelps will attempt to duplicate his Olympian exploits at the ripe ol’ age of 20.

Phelps left his teenage years behind a couple of weeks ago, but he’s hardly over the hill. In fact, his lanky, 6-foot-5 body still seems fully capable of doing it all over again.

“I feel good, so let’s keep it going,” he said.

Who knows? Phelps might keep it going all the way to Beijing, still three years away on the Olympic calendar.

“If he continues along the way he is now, has a good year of training next year, I don’t see why he couldn’t attempt the same thing in Beijing that he did in Athens,” Bowman said in a revised and more tantalizing forecast.

Phelps will take on a slightly different challenge in Montreal. He swapped two of his world-record events, the 200-meter butterfly and 400 individual medley, for the 100 and 400 freestyles.

“We just wanted to try something different,” Bowman said.

Phelps also qualified for the 100 butterfly, 200 free and 200 IM — holdovers from his Olympic regimen — along with 400 and 800 free relays. In addition, he likely will be picked to swim the 400 medley relay.

That adds up to eight. Again.

“Michael is like a lot of top-level guys,” American rival Ian Crocker said. “Every time you question them, say they can’t do something, that’s when they prove you wrong. I expect him to deliver on his goals.”

Bowman knows it will be difficult for Phelps to match his gold medal haul from last summer. He’s a long shot in the 100 free — “I’d just like to see him do a best time in that event,” his coach said — and hasn’t come close to matching Grant Hackett in the 400 free.

But Phelps is eager to see how he stacks up against the Australian star — and so is Hackett, world record holder in the 1,500. He even added the 200 free to his extensive schedule in response to Phelps’ decision to swim the 400.

“It’s the competitor in him,” Hackett’s coach, Denis Cotterell, told The Australian newspaper. “Grant’s saying, ‘I don’t want to look like I am scared to meet him in his territory,’ and there’s also the motivation of racing the guy who’s accepted as the best swimmer on the planet.”

With Ian Thorpe skipping these championships, Phelps vs. Hackett is shaping up as the most intriguing showdown in Montreal. Thorpe has been on an extended break from training since the Athens Games.

Hackett is a former world record holder in the 200, but Phelps won an Olympic bronze in that event — ahead of Hackett. The Australian’s best time in the 400 is nearly four seconds faster than Phelps’ mark, but the two have never raced each other at that distance.

Phelps, Crocker, Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen lead an overpowering U.S. men’s team, which looks very much like the squad that dominated in Athens.

“I’ll certainly get all the blame if we don’t do well,” men’s coach Dave Salo quipped.

With three-time Olympian Amanda Beard taking the year off — she’s done some modeling and dated NASCAR driver Carl Edwards — the American women will rely heavily on Natalie Coughlin, who won five medals in Athens.

Also being counted on: youngsters such as Katie Hoff and Kelsey Ditto, both 16, and 17-year-old Kate Ziegler.

“We have to get them on the fast track so they can get the international experience and confidence to be successful in Beijing,” said Chuck Wielgus, who heads USA Swimming. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

The Americans will be even more hard-pressed to keep up with the rest of the world in the other events at these 15-day aquatic championships: diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open-water swimming.

As usual, the Chinese are the team to beat on the boards, having claimed a record six diving golds in Athens and intent on winning all eight events when the Olympics come to their homeland in 2008.

The U.S. went back to the drawing board after failing to win an Olympic medal for the first time in 92 years. New selection procedures, new training methods, a whole new approach — anything to help America reclaim its former status as a diving superpower.

“In Athens, it all came crashing down,” said Steve McFarland, a vice president at USA Diving and part of the committee that selected the 14-member Montreal team.

“We all looked at each other and said, ‘OK, let’s do this. Let’s do something radically different. Let’s start over.’”

Sydney gold medalist Laura Wilkinson is one of just four holdovers from Athens. The youth movement includes 15-year-old Thomas Finchum, 16-year-olds David Boudia, J.J. Kinzbach and Kelci Bryant, and 17-year-old Chelsea Davis.

“We are focused on winning Olympic medals,” McFarland said. “The world championships are a benchmark for us along the way to see how we are stacking up.”

It’s too early in the process to mount a serious challenge to the Chinese, who are expected to get their stiffest competition from the home team. Olympic medalists Alexandre Despatie and Emilie Heymans lead the Canadians.

Coughlin broke her left foot shortly after the Olympics and is just getting back to top form. She qualified for two individual events in Montreal and hopes to swim all three relays, as well.

Two years ago, Coughlin became ill during the world championships in Barcelona, ruining her hopes of a Phelps-like performance.

“I don’t feel I need to make up for anything,” Coughlin said. “That was a freak thing in Spain. I had a 103-degree fever. A lot of people would have been hospitalized in that situation. I’m really proud of how I handled it.”

Phelps had a major hiccup handling his post-Athens success, getting arrested for drunken driving.

“I’ve learned from this mistake and will continue learning from this mistake for the rest of my life,” said a contrite Phelps, who pleaded guilty and received 18 months on probation.

He also moved away from Baltimore, leaving the comfort of his mother’s home to follow Bowman to the University of Michigan.

“It was a big adjustment at first,” the coach said. “Just being able to provide his own meals, keep everything clean — that’s all stuff he used to take for granted. It was tough for him.”

In the pool, Phelps makes it look easy.

He’s the unquestioned star of the swimming world, especially at these championships with no Thorpe, Beard or Pieter van den Hoogenband, the Dutch star who’s recovering from a hernia operation. Also, Olympic stalwarts Jenny Thompson of the U.S. and Alexander Popov of Russia called it a career after Athens.

Phelps had a breakthrough performance at the last world championships, becoming the first swimmer to set five world records at a single meet.

But it’s a lot tougher finding the motivation to swim a year after Athens. In fact, most coaches would prefer the championships be held every four years, sandwiched directly between the Olympics.

“It was difficult to get back into training,” Coughlin conceded.

Montreal had problems of its own. The championships were stripped from the city in January because of budget woes, but the move was rescinded a few weeks later when the Canadians came up with additional funding.

A new complex has been constructed at the Parc Jean-Drapeau, a picturesque locale in the middle of the St. Lawrence River that was site of the 1967 world’s fair.

“We’ve been to the venue and it’s fantastic,” Bowman said. “Everything is in place to have a great event.”

Hackett juiced up for world champs

The Gold Coast’s Grant Hackett says he is happy with his preparation for the world swimming championships in Montreal in July.

The Olympic 1,500 metre freestyle champion will captain a new-look Australian team which includes 14 rookies.

Hackett is planning to also contest the shorter races like the 400m freestyle, but he says Ian Thorpe’s absence will not make it any easier to win.

“I mean, I’ve got Michael Phelps in the 400, I guess you could say replacing Ian Thorpe as the main sort of threat in that particular race,” he said.

“But it’s going to be very exciting and I’m looking forward to getting up and racing against the guys that were so close in Athens in that 1,500 metre freestyle, of course, and seeing how it evolves.”

Phelps’ threat to top Hackett

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AMERICAN superstar Michael Phelps believes he has the weapons at his disposal to upset Grant Hackett for the 400m freestyle crown at the world championships in Montreal in July.

Despite Olympic champion Ian Thorpe’s absence, this is likely to be the race of the championships as two of the stars of the sport face off for the first time in this event.

“It’s definitely going to be fast and exciting – almost like the 200m last summer (the “race of the century” between Thorpe, Phelps and Pieter van den Hoogenband at the Athens Olympics),” Phelps said.

“He’s swum and done that event for a long time so that’s going to be a challenge for me. It’s going to be a fast race and I guess it will take 3:42-3:43 to win it.”

Phelps’s best time is 3min46sec but he has no doubt that he can bridge the gap to Olympic silver medallist Hackett, who has a best time of 3:42.51.

“I think one of the things that has helped me this year has been the training group I have had (at Club Wolverine at the University of Michigan),” Phelps said. “For the first time, I have been swimming with freestylers everyday, every stroke and every lap. It’s a change and it’s a good change. I think that will definitely improve my freestyle.”

One of those freestylers, Klete Keller, took the bronze medal behind Thorpe and Hackett in the Athens 400m freestyle and stepped up to deny Australia the 4×200m freestyle gold medal by holding off Thorpe on the final leg.

Phelps, 19, moved from Baltimore to Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his coach Bob Bowman after winning six gold medals at the Olympics last year.

They have chosen to take on a freestyle-dominated competition program this year, including the 100m, 200m and 400m, as well as the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

The 200m freestyle was the only individual event Phelps contested at the Olympics that he did not win, but he seems certain to claim that title in Montreal in the absence of Thorpe and van den Hoogenband, who announced on Friday he would skip the titles because of a recent hernia operation.

Phelps acknowledged the event would lose some excitement without the two men but said he would “still try and swim it as fast as I can”.

“The excitement level for the fans will be a little bit lower because Thorpe and van den Hoogenband are the two fastest ever in that event,” he conceded.

“But for me, an event is an event, it’s an opportunity to get in the water and race.”

Phelps closer to taking Thorpe’s crown

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Swimming superman Michael Phelps’ path to collecting Ian Thorpe’s 200m freestyle crown has been cleared.

The Thorpedo opened the door for the American superstar to win the four-lap event by skipping July’s world swimming championships in Montreal.

But it was Pieter van den Hoogenband’s decision this weekend to also miss the Canadian meet that firmed the Baltimore Bullet as the hot favourite for the event.

Thorpe has owned the 200m since being defeated by the Dutchman at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the pair finished 1-2 at last year’s Athens Games.

Phelps collected bronze on his way to eight medals and is expected to make a significant improvement as he shifts his focus more towards freestyle this year.

The 200m final in Greece was labelled the race of the century but Thorpe and van den Hoogenband’s unavailability for Canada has taken some gloss off the meet.

“It is the same with Ian not being there, it is very disappointing that we are not going to have the two fastest 200m freestylers in that field,” said Phelps.

“And the world record holder in the 100 metres (in van den Hoogenband) not there but everybody makes those decisions for a reason and we are going to have go along with that.”

The ultra-versatile American enjoys nothing more than a challenge as his decision to compete in the 200m freestyle final in Athens displayed.

He was higher ranked in the 200m backstroke but ditched that swim so he could race against Thorpe.

Phelps is showing his lust for a contest hasn’t weakened by adding the 400m freestyle to his Montreal program and a much-anticipated showdown with Grant Hackett.

The lanky Australian team captain is quicker on paper but the teenager’s phenomenal talent means it will be a highlight of the meet.

Phelps has the wood on Hackett in the 200m, which will only spur on the Queenslander to maintain his edge in the eight-lap event.

The University of Michigan student is like any other freshman, in that he is more than prepared to try a little experimentation.

He is dropping the 200m butterfly and the 400m individual medley for Montreal despite winning gold medals in both events in Athens.

“This year is just a year of trying to do different events and see where we stand, I have given the 200 fly and the 400m IM a rest for this summer and for the world championships,” he said.

Phelps is still tipped to match his Olympic feats, by winning six gold medals at the worlds, with the 100m and 400m freestyle the only events on his schedule likely to be beyond his long reach.

Phelps ready for solo turn in world spotlight

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This summer, swimming’s world stage belongs to Michael Phelps — even if he has to build it himself.

The brilliant U.S. Olympic hero was in Montreal the past two days taking a look at the new facilities for the July 17 to 31 world aquatics championships, where he expects to cement his reputation as the planet’s best all-round swimmer. He witnessed the start of the Canadian trials for worlds, as the host country assembles new dreams on the ashes of a disappointing Athens Olympics.

The bottom line is, he was selling tickets for the Michael Phelps show. He will be the unrivalled star of the pool this year, a workhorse swimming in eight events — five individual swims and three relays.

Though Phelps captured six gold medals and two bronze last summer, somehow the spotlight was never his own. It was always pointed out that Mark Spitz had a record seven golds in Munich in 1972, or that Russian gymnast Alexander Dityatin already had set the standard of eight medals by a single athlete in 1980. And, on the night of the most anticipated race of the Olympics, the 200-metre freestyle, he swam the fastest time of his life only to finish third behind Australian Ian Thorpe and Pieter Van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands.

Thorpe and Van den Hoogenband congratulated each other. Phelps stayed in the pool watching the replay of the race. Leaving the pool deck, Phelps took another long look at the scoreboard and let it sear into memory.

This summer, he will rule the waves. Thorpe has elected to pass on the Montreal meet to conserve himself for next spring’s Commonwealth Games in Australia. Van den Hoogenband, a triple Olympic champion, is to undergo surgery on a hernia this morning. He wants to be in Montreal, but he’s 27 and coming off an operating table and says he won’t make the trip if he’s not at his best.

“I’m an athlete. A minor role doesn’t interest me. But I’ll be happy when I can move again,” he said.

Phelps and his major sponsor Speedo dived in like lifeguards to resuscitate the world championship event that almost sank to the bottom. The International Swimming Federation took the worlds away from Montreal in January because of a sponsorship shortfall and only reinstated the championships when the mayor guaranteed to cover the budget.

Uncertainty about the meet stalled ticket sales at about 15 per cent of the sales target before selling in earnest began last month. Phelps said in an interview yesterday that filling the house is a goal that goes hand-in-hand with the medals.

“A packed house is an excited house. I hope we can get a message across and 13,000 people are in the stands,” he said. “The faster I can swim, the more excited everyone will be. When you’re on a pace for a record and tiring, the crowd helps a lot to get you through it. I want to be remembered as one of the greatest swimmers ever, that would be fun.”

The absence of Thorpe won’t leave him without motivation. In the 400 freestyle, he’ll challenge Grant Hackett of Australia; in the 100, he’ll likely face Canadian champion Rick Say of Vancouver.

“Everyone has his own decisions. Ian Thorpe skipped for a reason. It may help him in long run and if it does, then sport will be more exciting in the long run. It’d be more exciting with him here, but we have good people here.”

The enormous workload of eight events doesn’t faze him.

“I like to race against the best, and when you have a few events, you have a chance of meeting the best more often,” he said. “It keeps me going, keeps my head on straight. The number of races I do will only help me. I’m not worried about burnout. What do you have to lose?”

Meanwhile, there was early sign of revival of Canada’s swim fortunes. Mike Brown of Calgary and Morgan Knabe of Victoria both beat the time standard in the men’s 100-metre breaststroke in the first preliminary session of the world trials at the Claude-Robillard Centre.

Hackett predicts Montreal magic from Australia

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Team captain Grant Hackett is predicting a bold showing by Australia’s swimmers at the World Championships in Montreal in July.

The 38-member team is competing in Brisbane tonight and tomorrow as it continues its preparations for Canada.

Hackett says there are some very talented swimmers on the team and he believes some will make their mark at the world titles.

“There’s the name like Leisel Jones, Libby Lenton, Jodie Henry, Alice Mills, you know, a few younger members of the male team such as Andrew Lauterstein,” he said.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how our relays get up, so it’s post-Olympic year, there could be a few weak events, and a few people could sneak up and do something quite incredible.”

Hackett himself is seeking a history-making fourth 1,500-metres freestyle world title and continues his preparations in Brisbane.

Tonight he will start in the 100 and 400 metres freestyle, and on Saturday morning he will compete in the 200 metres.

Hackett said he was fit and enjoying his swimming.

“I was really happy with the way I performed at the World Championship trials and now it’s just a matter of focusing on what I have to do to improve my fitness that little bit more and step up at the World Championships,” he said.

Meanwhile, swimmers have been given an added incentive for the “Duel in the Pool” between Australia and the United States in California, which begins two days after the World Championships.

Any swimmer setting a world record will earn a $25,000 bonus.

The United States won the first duel in Indianapolis two years ago.