Hackett sets sights on London bid

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Australian swim team captain Grant Hackett hasn’t ruled out shooting for an historic fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal at the 2012 London Games.

Hackett was a big supporter of London’s bid for a third Olympics and said the city’s win had left him tempted to continue racing into his early 30s.

No Australian athlete has ever won four gold medals in the same event at four successive Olympics and Hackett will be gunning for a hat-trick in the 1500m freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Legendary swimmer Dawn Fraser remains the benchmark for Australian Olympians, having snared gold in the women’s 100m freestyle at the 1956 Melbourne Games, at Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964.

Come 2012, Hackett could well be the new standard bearer.

“I never planned to retire after Beijing and I certainly plan on going a couple of years (after Beijing),” Hackett said before leading the Australian team to the 2005 world championships in Montreal.

“Whether I go all the way to London and there as an athlete or in another role, I’ll certainly be there for the opening of the pool and the new stadium and things like that.

“It’s a very exciting time.”

The 25-year-old Queenslander said his decision whether or not to continue racing until 2012 would depend on “purely motivation”.

“I’ll be 31 to 32 years of age in that year, so I think physically I’ll be able to do it,” Hackett said.

“A lot of athletes these days - when you look at anything from track running to rowing or anything track and field, an athlete’s body is almost peaking at the age of 30, 31.

“It’s whether I’m willing to go up that black line (but) I certainly think Beijing is not a long enough time for me to see out my career and my potential.

“I’ll certainly go a couple of years past that, but whether I’ll go all the way to 2012 I’ll have to wait and see.”

Hackett said it was important not to get caught up in the hype of possibly creating history.

His more immediate focus was on this month’s world titles.

“Everyone was talking three (gold medals) after I won one and now they’re talking four after I’ve won two, so it’s almost as though I’ve got to take one Olympiad at a time,” he said.

“Certainly at this time I’ve been happy with my form post-Athens and I’m extremely motivated now that I’ve got a couple of new rivals.

“They’ve certainly brought their 1500m times down and are going to be competitive over this next Olympiad and particularly Beijing and, for me, it’s (about) getting these world championships out of the way and then focusing on the next goal.

“I’m probably not trying to think about a third Olympic gold medal and particularly a fourth at this stage.”

A team of 38 Australian swimmers and divers, sans five-times Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe, flew out for Canada, with the 15-day world championship meet getting underway next Thursday.

The divers compete for a week until the 24th, when the swimming starts.

Thorpe has taken this year off from competition in order to freshen up for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.