Hackett setting a torrid pace

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IRVINE – The wake-up call came at 4 a.m.

So after barely four hours of sleep, Grant Hackett crawled out of bed in Montreal, packed his three gold medals from the 11th FINA World Swimming Championships and raced off to catch a flight across North America.

So much for resting on your laurels.

“It’s been such a crazy time,” the Australian said, standing on the Woollett Aquatic Complex pool deck 16 hours later. “Between everything I really haven’t had time to sit back and think about it (the World Championships), to reflect on it. I’ve really been thinking about the job I have to do.”

Next on his to-do list would be this afternoon’s Duel in the Pool, the showdown between Australia and the U.S., swimming’s two superpowers, and a victory lap for Hackett and one of the most dominant weeks in the sport’s history.

If what he did over the course of eight days in Montreal wasn’t any clearer to Hackett in the California sun than it was in the darkness of Quebec, it has sunk in for the rest of his sport.

At a World Championships that U.S. men’s coach Dave Salo called “historic,” Hackett stole the show, padding a résumé that might already be unmatched by any other distance swimmer. He became the first man to sweep the 400, 800 and 1,500-meter freestyles at a single World Championships and the first to win a single event (the 1,500) at four consecutive World Championships.

In the process, the 25-year-old finally swam out of the long shadow cast by countryman Ian Thorpe. Monday morning, three leading Australian newspapers all had the same headline: “Ian Who?”

The man the Aussies call Captain Fantastic smashed Thorpe’s highly regarded 2001 world 800 record in Montreal, and his three golds gave him eight individual World titles for his career, one more than Thorpe, who is taking the year off.

Hackett has a record 17 World Championships medals, four more than the previous mark shared by Thorpe, Germany’s Michael Gross and Jenny Thompson of the U.S.

“What we saw last week was a sensational athlete,” Australia coach Alan Thompson said.

Montreal might also have signaled a turning point for Hackett, who has battled respiratory problems most of his career.

“For the first time he came to a major international competition and he wasn’t sick,” Salo said. “And he really stepped up. It was a lot of fun. It was exciting.”

When Hackett was 14 he stayed home “sick” from school to watch on television as Australia distance superstar Kieren Perkins swam at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. In the midst of Perkins’ world record 1,500, Hackett turned to his mother.

“I’m going to break that world record one day,” Hackett recalled saying.

“I said it without realizing what it meant or what it would take to get that record,” Hackett continued.

That day in 1994 Hackett could not have imagined how difficult it would be to get to the top. He won his first Olympic 1,500 in 2000 despite battling glandular fever. His defense in Athens was even more impressive as he competed with a left lung that was 25 percent collapsed because of a respiratory infection.

Hackett initially feared the infection had caused permanent damage. Montreal erased those concerns.

Healthy for the first time in years, Hackett said he believes he is just now entering his prime years. He talks of lowering his 1,500 world record of 14 minutes, 34.56 seconds to sub-14:30. No else has gone under 14:41.

“If you look at rowing or track and field, (cycling) or the marathon, the top men are reaching their peak between 28 and 32,” Hackett said. “And the financial gains now allow people to stay in swimming longer. So you don’t have to get into the real world and get a real job.”