Swimming: Final would suit Corney

Corney Swanepoel, ranked eighth in the world in the 100m butterfly, will swim in a supposedly inferior Speedo suit at the world championships. Photo / Doug Sherring

Corney Swanepoel got a puncture on the way to swimming training on Wednesday morning.

He gets them all too frequently on his "beat-up" Toyota and wonders if his coaches are now starting to suspect if there's something a little fishy about his excuse for being late to training.

Swanepoel has had a number of flat periods throughout his swimming career, too, which have also delayed his arrival.

He was supposed to be one of the world's elite by now. Big things were predicted of the South African-born Kiwi when he won gold at both the 2003 Youth Olympics and junior world championships. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

He failed to make the final at the 2004 Athens Olympics when many expected him to; there was the growth spurt which badly affected his technique and form in 2005; and he also almost missed out on qualifying for the 2006 Commonwealth Games before finishing fourth.

There was also the "photo-gate" incident at last year's Olympics when he was tossed out of the Olympic village and barred from a team gathering on the final day of the Games (along with Cameron Gibson and Dean Kent) for distributing a photograph of team-mate Daniel Bell sitting comatose on a toilet covered in vomit and with his jeans around his ankles.

The setbacks have been significant, prompting some to even suggest it's a surprise Swanepoel has remained in the sport.

"I used to wonder that all the time," he says, rubbing his eye as he battles his constant companion of tiredness. "But I love what I do ... and I still believe I'm capable of being a world and Olympic champion."

It's this belief which drives him to train around 30 hours a week - he usually gets there on time - and the relentless schedule of fartleks (speed exercises) and free weights.

He might be only 23, still short of when male swimmers are thought to peak, but it's an older and certainly much wiser incarnation of the Corney Swanepoel who believed all the hype around him.

"It's easy to believe when people say good things about you," he says. "[Success as a youngster] wasn't the best thing for me because when I didn't get something, I would bang my head against a wall and try harder and harder. Sometimes you just have to step back and get a new perspective on things.

"I was always like, 'why can't I do this,' and tried harder and harder. I worked myself to the bone and when I got to meetings and didn't swim as fast as I thought I should, I was left shaking my head. In the bigger scheme of things, it made me better as an athlete.

"In 2005, I had a dip in form which carried on for another year but, from 2007 when I made a semifinal at a big meet for the first time, I have built on every swim. I had a couple of bad meets in the past but that was down to inexperience. I was too nervous at some big meets, standing next to some of the big names, but I have had enough exposure now that I'm feeling really confident."

There is great uncertainty, though, over what he will achieve at this month's world championships in Rome.

No one really knows how they will go because of the free-for-all Fina have allowed by reversing an earlier decision and sanctioning virtually any swimsuit that has been manufactured.

Swimmers who have not previously been near the top have produced phenomenal times aided by the additional buoyancy of the controversial suits and more than 100 world records have fallen in the past 18 months. Consequently, Swanepoel has little idea where he sits next to his slippery, polyurethaned rivals.

He goes into the world championships ranked eighth in his favoured 100m butterfly and 16th in the 50m but he will race in the supposedly inferior Speedo suit in Rome.

All things being equal, everything would have to go perfectly for him to make the final of the 50m, an event that has little margin for error and which also attracts a handful of freestylers, but a spot in the final of the 100m is not out of the question.

"Rome is going to be crazy this year because of the suits," Swanepoel says. "Until the end of this year [when the rules change and suits must be made solely of fabric], anything goes and a whole bunch of new suits have come into play which have seen world records shattered.

"It's going to be tough to gauge or set goals. I'm feeling really confident I will be swimming the best times I have ever swum but where that places me this year is like rolling the dice.

"It's progress, I guess, but it's got to the point where different suits have different advantages and it's more about which suit you race in as opposed to a level playing field."

The results, of course, have financial implications because Sparc base their funding of athletes on success at world and Olympic or Commonwealth Games. Swanepoel gets by at the moment but cringes to think what might happen if that funding is slashed because of a poor result.

New Zealand will take a team of 10 swimmers to Rome but only Moss Burmester, who finished fourth in the 200m butterfly at both the 2007 world championships and last year's Olympics, is a medal chance.

Swanepoel and breaststroker Glenn Snyder, who will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, are a chance for a final, as is the 4x100m medley relay team which finished fifth at Beijing.

They all had a hitout at the West Wave Aquatic centre in Waitakere yesterday, hastily arranged after a grand prix meeting in Melbourne was cancelled recently because of swine flu.

Five national records fell in the short-course meet, including one to Swanepoel in the 100m fly (50.59s), and it built on his impressive showing at April's national championships when he went faster than he did in Beijing on limited training.

It seems his new programme based on less time in the water and more time in the gym is paying dividends.

London 2012 remains the ultimate goal but Swanepoel isn't getting ahead of himself.

Much like the tyres on his car, his career has been punctured too often for him to feel totally secure.

Corney Swanepoel

Age: 23

Specialty: 100m butterfly

RESULTS

* 2003 Youth Olympics and junior world champion.
* 2004 Athens Olympics: 12th 100m fly.
* 2005 world championships: 18th 100m fly.
* 2006 Commonwealth Games: 4th 100m fly, 5th 4x100m medley relay.
* 2007 world championships: 14th 100m fly.
* 2008 Beijing Olympics: 12th 100m fly, 5th 4x100m medley relay.