I was born the 19^th of October 1983 and showed some potential as a breaststroker at a young age. My elder brother Nathan became the fastest ever Australian in the 50m freestyle in 1997. His record was broken the next year and a back injury and a bout of glandular fever meant that he never got back to his best, but it was fantastic for a teenager like myself to get a glimpse of what it took to be on the Australian swim team. So a few years after my brother achieved his aim of representing his country I started to follow in his footsteps when, in 2000, I won my first national age group title. From there my aim of being selected onto the open team came surprisingly quickly when I was selected for the World Short Course Team to Moscow in early 2002. Then in 2003 I made the Long Course World Championship team in some difficult circumstances (which I may explain in a later entry). So as a 19 year old in what is regarded as the second biggest stage in swimming (behind the Olympics), I set my first Australian record in the 100m Breaststroke at 1.01.37, breaking Phil Rogers' 10 year old record in my first major international meet, and boy was I proud of myself. Probably a little too proud...

Unfortunately what followed was a terribly painful experience and something that all too many swimmers endure. In March of 2004, the trials for the Athens Olympic trials took place in Sydney, and in case you didn't know, swimmers in Australia have one meet to make the team or they watch the action from home. I am not sure how much was mental or emotional and how much was physical but in the final of the 100m Breaststroke (the event in which I was national record holder) I put together the worst race I can ever remember swimming. However you can no doubt appreciate how physically ill, how devastated and how embarrassed I felt afterwards. At the time my 200m Breast (the only other Olympic breaststroke event) was pretty ordinary and something I didn't really take (or train for) seriously, so my Olympic dream was shattered. This left me with a decision to make: cut my losses and give the sport away and get a real job, or go back and keep chasing the dream. Luckily I chose the latter which fortunately brought me to some less forgettable chapters in my swimming career.

With the lessons learned from the Olympic trials and a move to Canberra to train at the Australian Institute of Sport, my swimming career quickly got back on track. My coach, Vince Raleigh, and I decided to make the 200m Breast a serious part of my program and adjusted training accordingly. So after a disappointing 2004, 2005 saw me become the first Australian to break 61 seconds for the 100m Breast. 2006 saw me collect one gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games. Later in the year I managed  to break my Australian record and finished second to the world record holder and in front of the reigning Olympic champion, at the Pan Pacs in Victoria, Canada, so I finished 2006 ranked second in the world for the 100 Breast. At the beginning of this year Melbourne hosted the 2007 World Championships where I received a full set again: Gold in the medley relay, Silver in the 200m Breast and Bronze in the 100m Breast. After my devastating 2004 you can imagine how thrilled I was to be awarded the inaugural Kieren Perkins medal for best performed Australian Male at the World Champs.

So that is the major part of the story till now, with less than 300 days till the start of the Beijing Olympics. My preparation already in full swing; I now have a small competition block in the next two months. The first weekend in November, sees Sydney hosts its leg of the World Cup Series. The week after the AIS will be hosting a meet which will be attended by some international guests. So join me next time when I stop reminiscing and turn my focus back to the present and the future.