Swimming: Butterflyer strokes back to top

Liz Coster

For New Zealand swimmer Liz Coster, it's the little things in life that really count. Such as ice cream.

Such simple pleasures loomed large after recent swim schedule which saw the butterfly specialist post a first-round Commonwealth Games qualifying time for 100m and break her own 50m fly record for the sixth time in two years. She is also due to take the blocks for the 4x100 medley relay team and the 50m and 100m backstroke in Melbourne. But, after the strains of competition, all Coster wanted to do at the end of a hard week was indulge.

"Hey, why don't we go get an ice cream? Let's go get an ice cream!" she beamed. As she reached for her triple-chocolate ice-cream cone, her crystal-blue eyes bulged with anticipation. Every lick sweeter than the last.

Not the diet of champions but no one was going to deny her that simple pleasure, especially because it was her 23rd birthday. She may not yet be the Tip-Top of New Zealand sport but it's not a stretch to envisage the Aucklander will, one day, reach that mantle.

There is no doubting Coster's love for the sport, it's been there for as long as she can remember. One of her fondest memories was watching Anthony Mosse win gold at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1992.

"I watched the highlights interview and used to run around the house air-punching," she laughed. "I wanted to be like him. I can probably recite everything he said in that interview, today," Coster said.

But when Coster is asked how she feels about becoming a hero to other up-and-coming swimmers, the easy-going Athens Olympian becomes visibly uncomfortable. She shifts in her chair and screws up her face.

After a minute she eventually confesses: "I would be OK with it but that's certainly not why I do it."

She regularly shares the pool with Ian 'Thorpedo' Thorpe and American superstar Michael Phelps but doesn't see them as heroes. "It's a fact that all those people are human. Sure, they are freaks in the water but they are just normal. They are just mortal," Coster explained.

Four years ago, she made her first attempt to turn her Commonwealth dream into a reality. Coster failed to qualify due to a serious foot injury that surfaced during the competition.

"It flared at Commonwealth trials. I was a backstroker at the time and couldn't even do a backstroke kick."

The injury was due to the calcification of a ligament that had detached itself from a bone. A large lump formed and forced her to sit on the sidelines for several months. It was a disastrous campaign that saw Coster seriously question her ability to make a return to international competition. She also entered a transitional period, which saw her change coaches and move clubs from Parnell to the Millennium Institute's North Shore club.

"I knew I was physically able to come back from it but it was one of the hardest times for me. Jan [Cameron] said that it would take a good two years to recover but I didn't believe her. But she was right."

When her specialist eventually gave her the all-clear to swim again, Coster made another change. She and the New Zealand coaches believed that, without a specialist butterfly swimmer, the women's medley relay team would go nowhere. Coster shifted her focus to butterfly and left Hannah MacLean to assume control of the backstroke leg, with great results.

Head coach Cameron said: "The opportunity for her to be the number one butterflier in the country presented itself. She has now done that in the 50m and 100m events. It's a matter of where their talents are. Elizabeth is a talented butterflier and backstroker."

New Zealand's swimming authorities are being deliberately cautious about medal prospects in the pool - and for good reason. Home advantage will help Australia's burgeoning swim team and it is difficult to measure the progress of other swimmers.

Coster finished eighth in the 50m butterfly final at the world championships in Montreal last year although her official world ranking is 17th, with only three Australians ranked ahead of her in the Commonwealth. She does not have a ranking in the 100m fly as she has not yet swum enough events to qualify but has four Australians ranked ahead of her best time in that event.

Coster says she relishes the competitive, yet supportive atmosphere North Shore provides her. "Every time you line up you have up to eight of your competition swimming against you. I think you can use each other to get out what you want out of it."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY