Hackett goes to extremes to miss illness

Grant Hackett has never been one to cut corners but his efforts to avoid illness before the Beijing Olympics are something else.

The two-time Olympic swimming champion is going to great lengths to avoid falling sick following his health problems at the last two Olympics.

The 28-year-old suffered from a bout of glandular fever in Sydney before overcoming an ongoing chest condition to win back-to-back 1500m titles in Athens four years ago.

For starters, the Australian swim team captain wears a humidifier face mask on flights to avoid germs from other passengers.

That is only the start of his quirks.

"Like a lot of people you don't touch hand railings, you don't share drink bottles ... my mind is always on doing everything correctly," he said.

He even evades large gatherings to keep his health in good order.

"You have to put your head down and make certain sacrifices, like anything that is worth achieving," he said.

"You have to avoid public places and a lot of crowds and having too late a night.

"You can't afford to drink or any of that stuff, anything that is going to put your immune system down and jeopardise your preparation.

"I think that is of even more importance for a distance athlete to keep up their kilometres."

While Hackett's approach may seem a little extreme even by his own high standards, he is chasing a historic third straight gold medal in the 1500m in Beijing.

And the lap machine doesn't want to leave anything to chance - not with the quality of opponents lining up in the 1500m in Beijing.

Hackett faces easily the toughest field of his career in the 30-lap event with quality distance swimmers having emerged from the United States, Canada, Poland, Russia, Wales, South Korea and Italy.

He knows how quickly a swimmer can come on having gone from his winning Olympic time of 14 minutes 48.33 seconds in 2000 to 14:34.56 in just 10 months.

"It is one of those things, there is always someone out there who has the potential to do something unbelievably fast," he said.

"But to put your finger on it or speculate who it could be is just too difficult but the 1500 has progressed as an event in terms of depth.

"There will be a competitor who comes out of that depth that potentially will swim in the 1430s and possibly the low 1430s."

Having suffered the humiliation of a disastrous week at last year's world championships, Hackett said at least he should be competing at his best in Beijing.

"I would prefer to go down fighting, if someone is going to beat me, I would prefer them to beat me when I am swimming really well," he said.

Hackett will be one of the headline acts at the Australian swim team's last hit-out before the Beijing Olympics at a grand prix at Sydney's Olympic Park starting Friday night.