Corney Swanepoel: Testing The Waters

Every Monday for the past few months starts the same - getting up at 5.30am for a 6 o'clock swimming session.

The whole team gets to the pool half asleep, most wishing they still were. It doesn't matter that many of us have been doing this for nearly a decade; it will never be easy for us to get up this early.

It is even tougher when, knowing that we are in a hard cycle of our training, there will be a 6km session waiting for us.

But once I dive into the water all that is forgotten, when I remember that I want to be here, and that I am among the few of us who are getting a chance to do something so special most people just dream of it.

It's hard to keep up at school with all the hours of training I do and all the important work I miss travelling overseas to compete. But my school is very supportive of its athletes and has done its best to help me where it can.

At 2.30 our land training starts, and as has become customary the guys on the team play a game of basketball to warm up for our gym session. More often than not we wreck ourselves before we even get to the weight stations.

We are sportsmen, so naturally we are competitive and enjoy ourselves so much that we don't care that we are making it harder on ourselves by playing so hard. But it's all just still a warm-up, we don't even keep score.

When we do finally drag ourselves to the gym, it's circuit training.

At 3.45 we head upstairs to get ready for another two hours of swimming. My coach and I are focusing on the skills of the race for the rest of the time leading up to the Games, which means starts, turns etc.

This afternoon it's a little harder, but also shorter than this morning. And when we finish the first day of the week it's off home for dinner, Simpsons, homework and then bed.

Tuesday follows pretty much the same pattern. All training sessions are at the same time of day, but on Tuesdays and Fridays for land exercises we lie on benches and pull on long elastic cords.

On Wednesday morning we are all happy to see that we have an easy 6km session, which is always a bonus because we don't train on Wednesday afternoons. And it's a good day because there is a double episode of the Simpsons tonight.

Me and the fellas on the Games team have made a big decision today to have a little contest once we have finished competing. There will be free McDonald's for the athletes in the Games village, so when we are all done with our racing we are going to do what will hopefully be an Olympic sport one day - the cheeseburger challenge! Ten cheeseburgers in the fastest time. We haven't yet decided what the winner will get, but my guess would be a bucket.

Thursday morning we get to the pool recovered and not as sluggish as usual. Today we were to get confirmation about the status of the relay teams going to the Olympics. But to our disappointment, that won't be known until next week.

The three relay teams - one of which I am a member - are confident, but it's still cool to have it official.

Thursday was a good day - it was mufti day at my school, Rangitoto College, and since seventh- formers wear mufti every day anyway, we have to dress up to a different theme each time.

The theme was what you want to be when you grow up. As I dressed as a swimmer when the theme was underwater, I thought I would get something else.

After watching Top Gun I knew exactly what I was going dressed as - a fighter pilot.

Yesterday we trained really hard because next week we are going to ease off slightly, as we are going to Brisbane for a Grand Prix meet.

After the last session of the week today, I have a massage, the most relaxing part of my training.

* Corney Swanepoel is in the New Zealand swimming team for the Olympics.