Australian head coach Don Talbot again poured cold water on the notion that the eight-day Olympic swimming competition will boil down to a duel between the United States and Australia. If we come out of here having done that, that would be fantastic. We've got 44 swimmers on the team, if they don't do their job, we can't do well. If Australia is to rake in the medals at the rate many fans here seem to expect, they'll need more than solid performances from Down Under Dieties like Klim, Thorpe and butterfly world record holder Susie O'Neill. That's the sort of thing every coach prays for.
Somebody feels the moment of the Games and lifts themselves and does something.
Performances like that are impossible to predict. It doesn't really matter what you do in your preparation, it doesn't always mean you're going to have the best of meets. This is the Olympic Games at the turn of the century in your own country. It's a question now of head down and, as we say here, bum up. It's a matter of trying to make it the highlight of our swimming history, if we can do it.