UNTIL now, they have been worlds apart in the swimming pool.

The streetwise champion, Grant Hackett, the mega-wealthy multi-medallist and iconic figure of a nation obsessed with its swimming heroes.

The young contender, David Davies, who has learned his championship trade in Hackett’s shadow and made do with Olympic and world championship bronze as the Australian colossus roared into the 1500m freestyle distance.

But the next time the two men meet (some time next year after Hackett’s recovery from shoulder surgery) Welshman Davies will know what it’s like to be a champion following his stunning Commonwealth Games gold on Tuesday.

Whether it leads to a shift in the balance of power between these two great rivals we must wait and see, but what is beyond dispute is the different lifestyles these tough-as-teak athletes lead.

In a country which worships its sporting stars, Hackett is in the same feted bracket as fellow swimmer Ian Thorpe and cricketers Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne. Ironically, missing the Games through injury has meant he has been even busier than he would have been in the pool with extensive media and sponsors’ commitments taking up his time.

Davies? Well, even his namesake Sharron would struggle to make swimming “sexy” in a nation too often caught up with the daily drama of its rugby and football teams.

But the differences don’t end there, or with the respective bank balances. Hackett’s interests include the glamorous pursuits of surfing, fast cars and playing drums and guitar. You could certainly say the 26-year-old world record holder is “living the dream”.

Davies shares Hackett’s love for music, but he is more likely to be seen wandering around back home or at the Commonwealth Games village with his iPod listening to various indie tunes or Eminem’s latest release.

After that, his love for Cardiff City (hence the “ayatollah” medal ceremony celebrations which have baffled the non-British press in Melbourne), hanging out with mates and the odd round of golf is as racy as it gets.

And then there are the domestic arrangements. While Davies - 21 earlier this month - still lives at home with parents Paul and Sue at the detached family home on a smart Barry estate, Hackett resides in a sprawling mansion on his native Gold Coast.

When Davies and his coach Dave Haller popped around for dinner before the Games, it was said the Welshman was taken aback by the size of the place. But that’s what you get when you’re sporting royalty in Australia.

“It’s certainly a different attitude out here to swimming,” Hackett told me this week. “Great Britain only got two bronze medals at the 2004 Olympics and that’s not really going to do much for the profile of the sport.

“Like anything you’ve got to be successful to gain a big profile and, I guess, to be famous. But given the history of the 1500m freestyle here David would already be a celebrity by now.”

If the lifestyles or the earning powers of the two men are at odds, then the mutual respect which exists between them is not.

Ever since Hackett clapped eyes on Davies for the first time at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester he has noted a competitor “so hungry and keen to improve”.

But it was at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona when Hackett identified someone capable of challenging his pre-eminence as one of the world’s great distance swimmers.

“Barcelona was when he lifted it up another notch,” he said. “From there he’s just gone from strength to strength and taken big chunks off his personal best time. He’s proved he’s a real star athlete who knows how to work hard and get up and race when it counts.

“He’s just one of those guys who has built up each year and is getting better and better. You can see he wants to get up there and be No 1 in this event.

“I see a lot of myself in him. Any guy who can swim around that level is ambitious, willing to work and challenge himself every time he gets in the water.

“They are the attributes I saw in myself and, hopefully, people like him and the American Larsson Jensen are not too good when I’m back!

“But it’s good for me that these guys are around. They definitely make me more determined to lift my training and swim faster.”

Hackett, already close to resuming his full training programme, will return to racing in the summer and should be in great shape for the Australian world championship trials in December.

So the pair should renew battle at the 2007 world championships here in Melbourne when the fervent home crowd will demand gold in their favourite event.

“It stings a little bit losing the 1500m freestyle,” said Hackett, mindful that the last non-Australian winner at the Games was at Vancouver in 1954.

“But there comes a time and a place when you can’t win everything forever. Things move in cycles and we’ve just got to be fortunate that we’ve had a 50-year winning cycle.

“I look forward to swimming against David again. He’s got a real good attitude to competing against the other guys and with the event itself.

“I know he’s going to be a big threat to me at the world championships and at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, titles which I’ve been able to be successful at in the past.”

Also successful has been the Grant Hackett merchandise spin-off industry and, as an Aussie-based aunt once memorably sent Davies a pair of Ian Thorpe boxer shorts, could the 1500m world record holder send his Welsh rival a gift to mark his gold medal triumph?

“There are some Grant Hackett speedos I could give him if he asked me nicely,” laughed Hackett. “But I don’t know if he’d want them.”

No, what Davies wants now is Hackett’s scalp. Maybe then, he would enjoy the recognition in Wales that his talent deserves.