Swimming: World record could come on day one

By PETER JESSUP

One of the great races of the Olympics is straight up on the first morning of the Games, the United States versus Australia in the men's 4x100m relay in the Homebush pool, and a world record is on the cards.

It's likely to be the weirdest-looking race start at an Olympic swim meet since the days when women turned out with no skin showing. At least half the field will be wearing the new sharkskin suits.

The outcome may set the tone for the rest of the meet. If Popov, in his $30 Speedos, beats Klim, in his $1500 skintight, science-backed graphite-bonded suit, how will the start of the individual 50m and 100m look?

There have been few advances in swimming technique, other than in breaststroke, in the past century. Time gains have come because of improved training technique, nutritional understanding, and the physiological gains that result. Until the suits.

They appeared last year via sports clothing manufacturers adidas and Nike, Speedo and Ayr, at meets approved by the international governing body Fina.- The Australians asked for, and got, Fina approval to use them.

Swimmers wore them in Olympic qualifying meets, and now the suits cannot be banned for fear of legal action from athletes and teams.

Fina's regulations ban any clothing that improves speed or adds buoyancy. It's hard to work out how the organisation looked past the former, and it didn't test the latter by even the simplest of means, holding a suit on the bottom and seeing if it floated to the top.

Australian 1500m swimmer Keiren Perkins said recently that the suits should be banned - "but I'm not going to be beaten by a swimmer who's wearing one when I'm not."

The suits are so skintight they take up to 10 minutes to put on and lose their advantage after even just two uses.

The theory is that the tightness improves "venous return," compressing veins so blood returns faster to the heart, thereby improves aerobic capacity. The surface is modelled on shark skin: tiny "denticles" improve water flow over the surface. Studies of sharks showed that water flows off with less friction if there is turbulence at the interface, in much the same way air flows better off a dimpled golf ball.

Included in the suit-wearers will be Australian Michael Klim, but his training partner at the Australian Institute of Sport, Alexander "The Great" Popov, will be swimming for Russia in an old pair of lucky Lycra briefs. Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband and Americans Neil Walker and Gary Hall jnr have performed both with and without them at recent meets.

All of them have gone close to Popov's record of 48.24s, set in 1994, Popov's time fastest in 48.27s.

The US has never lost the Olympic 4x100m relay. They lost to Australia at the world championships in Perth at the end of 1998 but beat them in the Homebush pool at the Pan Pacifics in August last year. So there is plenty riding on the opening day relay.

The Australians are threatening to sweep the pool at Homebush, but the Americans have been bristling at that suggestion for some time now and there is sure to be plenty of fighting talk leading up to what promises to be a thrilling opener to the swimming.

Both teams have unbeatable favourites and the only surety is that the US and Australia will share 90 per cent of the pool medals. Of the rest, there are standout performers in Dutchwoman Inge De Bruijn in sprints, South African Penny Heyns in breaststroke, and many also-swams.

It's tough company for the young New Zealand team. Only German-resident sprinter Vivienne Rignall, 26, has some experience of this level, given that she trains with Swedish short-course champion Therese Alshammer and competes regularly in Europe.

The others are hopes for the future. A medal of any colour in Sydney would be a major achievement for any of them, and they will be at their peak by Athens 2004.



But in Sydney, making a final would be major achievement. They will be way out of their depth in a competition expected to produce some of the Games' biggest stars.

Popov, swimming to make history as the first man to win the same event at three games, could be among them.

The 28-year-old Russian, who will contest the 50m and 100m freestyle, finds motivation in Tarzan.

"Johnny Weissmuller won way back in 1924-28 when my parents weren't even born and no one had done it again until I was fortunate enough to repeat this feat," he says. "So you can imagine what winning three straight means to me."

He was unbeaten for six years until 1997, and even that loss, to Klim, came after the Russian had suffered from a knife attack on the streets of Moscow.



But he is quietly confident about Sydney. "Records are not meant to be broken any day. You don't want to show all your cards before it's time."



Mid-distance is expected to be the territory of Australia's Thorpedo. Ian Thorpe's size 17 feet are sure to propel him into the history books too. He has the chance to win five golds; he's a sitter individually in the 200m and 400m free, and swims the 100m and 200m freestyle and the 100m medleys.

The 1500m promises the classic clash between the ageing hero, Keiren Perkins, and the new talent, Grant Hackett. Also in the picture will be Ukrainian Igor Chervynskiy and South African Rik Neethling.

There are three other men's events where there are stand-out favourites: American Lenny Krayzelburg has dominated backstroke for the past few years, while Klim has taken all butterfly sprints and American Tom Malchow has had all 200m butterfly races covered.

Klim has the chance to become Australia's greatest-ever gold medal winner, as does Susie O'Neill. He is undisputed favourite in the 100m butterfly, and is ranked in the top trio and a gold chance in the 200m butterfly, the 50m and 100m freestyle, the 4x100m, 4x200m free and the 4x100m medley relays.

O'Neill is an Australian favourite approaching the end of a long career.

going for gold in the same events as Klim, only Shane Gould with three gold, a silver and a bronze at Munich ahead of her. She has been unbeaten at the 200m butterfly for six years; the world record 2m 05.81s she set in 1999, then equalled this year, remainds unchallenged.

Her best at the 200m freestyle this year was 1.57.70s, just off German Franziska van Alsmick's world record 1.56.78.

In the 100m butterfly she will have to beat shooting star De Bruijn, also aiming for six golds.

Reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Heyns looks unbeatable in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

Most of the swim teams have spent weeks at altitude training camps, the theory that the body changes to cope with the rarefied air and produces more oxygen-carrying red-blood cells. The benefit is belieived to last up to four weeks. Almost all have been on dietary and vitamin supplements, strict regimens demanding specific ingestion times.

Some in the US team have been eating "horse bars," a mix of amino acids, vitamins, minerals and the fish oil Omega-3. It's a recipe prepared by a Pennsylvania equine supply company for racehorses, including the winner of this year's Kentucky Derby.

American Gary Hall jnr consumes it regularly, despite describing the taste as something akin to horse manure.

If he wins, everyone will be eating it.