SWIMMING: The word from those close to the action inside the Australian team camp is that James Magnussen is ready to do something special late on Day 5.

Magnussen will contest the final of the men’s 100m freestyle, for which he qualified with the fastest time. He had a bad swim in the first leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay earlier in this meet, when the gold medal-favourite Aussies finished fourth, but he bounced back in the heats and semis of the individual event.

Now comes the biggest race of all for him. There will be enormous pressure on Magnussen, but Alicia Coutts, who won silver in the 200m individual medley on Day 4, and Australia’s deputy Chef de Mission, Kitty Chiller, are confident he will handle it.

“I saw him after his semi last night and he was pretty relaxed,” Coutts said.

 “He looked pretty good. After the disappointment of the relay I think a lot of the boys internalised themselves. They were quite upset with how they performed and were a little bit hard on themselves.

“They sort of all withdrew into themselves. You would say ‘hi’ and they were a bit quiet, not their usual selves, and keeping it all to yourself is the worst thing. But I think they’re starting to come back out and be themselves.

“I think James has definitely come out of his shell. He has realised how it works, and put what happened in the relay to the back of his mind. It’s in the past now and he’s ready to move on. In a competition like this you need to say ‘that one’s done now, forget about it and move on’.

“I’m optimistic he’ll perform well. I think he should do well. You can’t discount anyone, you’ve got to see what happens on the day - it’s the Olympic Games and amazing things happen, look at the Lithuanian girl in the 100m breaststroke, no-one had ever heard of her and she came out and won it.

“You just don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think James should do well. Fingers crossed for him, and hopefully he can come away with the gold medal.”
Chiller said Magnussen had been through a valuable learning experience, and was ready to show he was a good learner.

“The swim team has helped him a lot,” she said.

“He was probably in shock, it was fair to say, after the 4x100m. He genuinely didn’t know what happened. He hadn’t experienced it before, that level of nerves, he said his hands were shaking, and that had never happened to him before.

“But it’s happened to him now, and if it happens again he will have worked out ways with his team to overcome that, and at least now he’s prepared for the fact it might happen. It just took him by surprise, but since then they’ve had a lot of time to prepare and talk about it.

“I think his swim in the semis shows he’s back in form, and he knows he can swim fast again, and that will be a huge boost to his confidence. Undoubtedly, he’ll be nervous, he’s got a lot to prove to himself and his team, but I don’t think nerves are a bad thing.

“It’s about how he responds. It’s fight or flight, isn’t it, and I think he’ll fight. His swim in the semi showed that. He swam 47.63 seconds, the same time he won the world championships in last year. He knows he can do it now, he knows he can conquer those nerves. So, yeah, we’re hoping for big things in the pool tonight.

“I think we’re a good chance for two gold in the pool tonight, with the 4x200m women’s relay as well, defending their title. I think we’re going to have a good day today.”

Answering concern from back in Australia that the Team wasn’t winning as many medals as had been hoped for, Chiller said it was still early days and that there was no panic.

“ We’re only starting the second quarter today, day five,” she said.

“The rowing, track cycling, sailing – we’re genuine gold medal hopes in those events. There’s a very positive feeling in the whole team.

“Sure, maybe we missed out on a few medals we thought we could have won, but we won the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, in which we weren’t a gold medal favourite.

 It’s the Olympic Games, and things happen, and we’ve seen that. We’re not panicking, there is no fear that we’ve failed, that we’re not on track.

“We still believe we can genuinely finish in the top five overall on the gold medal tally. We’ve got six medals overall so far, and we’re proud of that.”

Cate Campbell was forced out of the women’s 100m freestyle heats on Day 5 because of a gastro virus, but Chiller said she should be back in good health for the 50m heats on Day 7.

“She improved slightly yesterday, and went downhill last night,” Chiller said.

 “She’s been moved to a room on her own. Everything’s looking good for her to be back at full strength for the 50m in a couple of days.”

Greg Prichard in London

Olympics.com.au