Swimming through stormy waters

EIGHT years ago Andrew Bree — at just 19 — had the world at his feet when he made his Olympic debut in Sydney but since then not only himself but Irish swimming in general has gone through some difficult times.

He was devastated when he failed by just 0.4 of a second to get the qualifying standard for the Athens Olympics four years ago and was so disappointed that he stayed away from the pool for six months.

When he eventually came to terms with that near miss he refocused, examined his whole approach to the sport and made some major changes.

“I went back to looking at my stroke in detail and broke it all down,” he said. “Even the way my hand enters the water had to change.”

He converted half of his apartment into a gym and moved his personal conditioning coach, Thomas Clavier, in so he could concentrate on increasing his muscle mass.

And this week he hopes to reap the rewards of all the years of sacrifice, dedication and good old fashioned hard work when he enters the National Aquatics Centre which features one of the largest and most complicated membrane systems in the world.

This morning he launches his second Olympic campaign in heat 5 of the men’s 100m breaststroke before turning to his primary event — the 200m breaststroke.

“A place in the final is his personal target,” swimming team manager, Keith Bewley, said. “I am not sure if that’s realistic because he is not in the top 25 at the moment but I think a top 16 placing — semi-final — would be a very good achievement.

“Having said that Andrew looks really good. He was a bit stiff the first day he arrived out here but the physios worked on him and he is fine now.”

He agreed that World championships and European championships are always pretty predictable with very few surprises but the Olympics Games can provide a different kind of pressure.

“The figures show that only 50% of the competitors do their best times at the Olympics,” he said.

“Andrew is a good competitor at the big events — he has made European finals and he has always swam well — so if he does well and some of the others don’t, he could make the final.

“Last year when he qualified for here he was third in the American national championships. He is very strong, very focused and is very positive as well which is very important as you don’t want to be coming here if you are not. Mentally he is very good.”

This year the Olympic Council of Ireland decided to take two swimmers with “B” standards to the Olympics with an eye on London 2012 and, one of them, Melanie Nocher, responded immediately with an “A” standard.

She will compete in both the 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke over the coming week while Aisling Cooney, who just turned 18 last month, goes in the 100m. Both will benefit from the Olympic experience.

“Melanie has been swimming really well,” Keith Bewley said. “A week after she got selected she swam at the British championships in Liverpool and did the A standard. It was not a particularly fast meet and she was not rested for it so we are hoping she will go better again here.”