NO ONE really knows just what the Chinese and the Japanese swimmers can achieve in the Olympic Pool in Atlanta, but Australian Susan O'Neill, for one, is worried. She is not alone.
O'Neill a bronze medalist in the 200 metres butterfly in Barcelona four years ago, and again one of the favourites, where she will encounter Michelle Smith hit the nail on the head. "Anyone who wants to win a gold medal will have to beat the Chinese and Japanese. They are going to be the strongest opposition of all."
It is something Smith, too, can take on board. While O'Neill will be contending with the Asian factor in the 100m freestyle on Saturday, Smith will also have to overcome the Chinese, especially, and the Japanese in the 400m individual medley.
Smith, who has completed her preparations in recent weeks at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, finished runner up to Hungary's Krizstina Egerszegi in last year's European Championships in the discipline.
Egerszegi, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 400m medley however only stands ninth in the 1996 rankings, five seconds behind 15 year old Chinese swimmer Yan Chen, who finished 0.35 seconds ahead of Yanyan Wu in their national trials in April at Tianjin. Both Yan and Yanyan are in the field of 33 swimmers for Saturday's event, and confidently expect to make it a 1-2 finish.
The great American hope in the event is Allison Wagner, who clocked 4:41.61 at the Olympic Trials in March, while Japan's Fumie Kurotori is another capable of challenging for a medal.
But Smith who set an Irish record of 4:42.81 when she won that silver medal behind Egerszegi in Vienna last August has limited her competitive outings over the distance since then, concentrating on her own training and preparations.
She is not worried about what times other swimmers are producing. "I just do the best time I can, I can't control what anyone else is doing," she said.
Indeed, Egerszegi is likely to adopt a similarly philosophical attitude. While the Hungarian's best time this year is almost five seconds slower than Yan's, her winning time when beating Smith in the Europeans in Vienna was 0.52 seconds quicker than the Chinese swimmer.
The heats for the 400m IM will be finalised tomorrow, somewhat appropriately when Smith arrives in downtown Atlanta from her pre Olympic base in Florida. Realistically no more than 12 entries are real contenders. Certainly. Mira Ghniem, the 13 year old Jordanian swimmer, who has a best time of 6:3.81, is unlikely to trouble any of them.
