Olympic champion Grant Hackett has rarely been in better shape thanks to a vigorous training regime and an odd routine that has earned him the nickname "Beijing Bubble Boy".
SINGAPORE: Olympic champion Grant Hackett has rarely been in better shape thanks to a vigorous training regime and an odd routine that has earned him the nickname "Beijing Bubble Boy".
Desperate to become the first 1,500m swimmer to win three Olympic golds, the Australian is avoiding crowds and refusing to drink from open bottles or touch public handrails or washbasins for fear of getting sick.
And to top it off, he has taken to wearing a mask whenever travelling by plane.
But his coach Ian Pope sees nothing strange in preparing so meticulously for an Olympics.
"Grant's just been very particular about doing everything correctly," Pope told the Today newspaper here where Hackett is training and acclimatising amid tight security to keep prying eyes out.
"There's no point going to the Olympics to get sick. They can call him whatever they like, but at the end of the day he has remained healthy and that's the important thing."
If the 28-year-old succeeds in winning his third Olympic gold medal in the 1,500m he will be the first man in 104 years to win the same swimming event in three consecutive Games.
Pope said Hackett, who has held the world record of 14min and 34.56sec since July 2001, was in tip top shape.
"Grant has had the best preparation and this is the best he has been for many years," he said.
"He's had the fastest times, he's healthy and we've maintained consistent training which is crucial for someone like Grant who is so driven and pushes himself into the
ground."
However, he cautioned that other swimmers had closed the gap on the Australian, singling out South Korean teenager Park Tae-Hwan.
"There have certainly been many big shifts in the world, many world records and many fast times," he said.
"Two of the three swimmers who competed in the 1,500m final at the last Olympics have dropped about 10 seconds off their times since then.
"So anything can happen. You can't count your chickens before they hatch."
Hackett will join the rest of the Australian swim team in their pre-Games buildup in Kuala Lumpur from this weekend.
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