Hello again, well it has been a busy couple of weeks again in the swimming world. Speedo released a new swim suit, Australia had a new world record holder and one of our champions announced she would not be attempting to defend her title in Beijing.

Two and a half weeks ago, Speedo released their new LZR swim suit, and results have pretty much spoken for themselves. Three world records were swum in the new suits within a week of their release. There is more to swim suits then just how fluid dynamic or streamline they are, comfort, flexibility and ease to put on are all issues. As one of the athletes used in testing, I thank Speedo for one, taking suit development seriously, but more so listening to the athletes about what they need in a suit and how long we have to put them on.

Eamon Sullivan became Australia's newest swimming world record holder a fortnight ago when he broke Alex Popov's 50m freestyle mark. The record at the time was the oldest male record on the books (set in early 2000), which gives you an idea how much the world of swimming has moved forward recently. Eamon has had a tough career to say the least so to see him become the world fastest man in the pool is just fantastic. Sullo was so fragile and injury prone that he received the nick names Mr Glass or windscreen O'Briens. After a series of operations and numerous cortisone injections Eamon and his coach (Grant Stoelwinder) customized his program to suit his body. Although he doesn't swim the kilometers that a lot of swimmers do, he works at an incredibly high intensity and he deserves all the credit he gets.

Finally Jodie Henry announced this week that she would not be competing at nationals and therefore can not be going to the Olympics. This is a real shame for many reasons, of course the 100m freestyle will be a great race let alone with the added interest of Jodie defending her title. Also not having Jodie does make the job a little harder for the girls in the freestyle relay. I am a little surprised that she has completely ruled herself out, I mean someone of Jodie's talent would not have to be at 100% to make the team (in the relay) and then she could have tried to get herself fit for the actual games.

That is about it from me, we have 20 days left until trials so we are starting into taper now, which means a lot less swimming which is always nice.

Thanks, speak to you next time.