Swimming: Meet Australia's new golden hope

There they were up on stage, three Australians with Olympic medal-winning pedigrees and a solid bank of star wattage.

But between them, Leisel Jones, Eamonn Sullivan and Stephanie Rice couldn't hold a towel to Games newcomer and hot gold medal hope James Magnussen at a press conference today.

Consider that breaststroker Jones is preparing for her fourth Olympic Games, an Australian swimming record, and has three gold medals among eight in her Games career; glamour girl Rice won three golds in Beijing four years ago and is the world 400m individual medley recordholder; while her former beau Eamonn Sullivan won three medals in Beijing.

Magnussen is gearing up for his first Olympics, but by dint of becoming the first Australian to win the 100m freestyle at last year's world championships in China, and being something of a pinup figure, the 21-year-old from Port Macquarie is the flavour of the moment.

"I don't think I'm feeling the burden of expectation too much at this stage," he said.
"I want to look back on these Games as a positive fun experience and I'm not going to let it get to me."

Sporting a trim beard, Magnussen, whose best of 47.10 seconds is the fourth fastest time in history, was asked ad nauseum about the challenge he faced from Brazilian Cesar Cielo, whose 46.91s is the world record, and who was the gold medallist over 50m in Beijing.

Are you afraid of Cielo, he was asked. Magnussen played a neat leg glance - "there's another Australian called James Roberts who has swam faster than Cesar," he said of his team mate, nicknamed the Rocket.

"My goals for this meet are to stay positive regardless of results. When I stay in a positive mindset, things tend to fall into place for me.

"At this stage my biggest competitor this week will be myself and my head space."
Which sounded just a touch zen. Magnussen impressively managed to mix a measure of confidence with care not to sound too cocky.

And he put a sense on perspective when asked about aiming for the world record in London.

"My time in the trials definitely points to it being a possibility. But to be completely honest I've come to win gold, not break records.

"I think if you're going to leave a legacy in the sport it starts with Olympic gold, followed by a world record. At this stage that would be a bonus."

On it went, Magnussen wearing a resigned look long before the end. There was the odd inquisition of the other three, plus head coach Leigh Nugent. But there was no doubting who was centre stage.

Rice was reminded of her reputation as a "party girl". That brought a momentary freeze across the face; Sullivan had only the occasional inquiry while Jones was asked to compare the pool in London with the celebrated Water Cube from Beijing.

She responded that water is pretty much the same in most pools ''depending on how you're feeling".

Quite. But as they trooped out of the room, the 'other' three could have been forgiven for wondering why they'd bothered to turn up to the Magnussen Show.