Training is very full on at the moment as you could imagine. Aside from training at home in Melbourne I have been to a training camp in Cairns, the Telstra Grand Prix meet in Sydney and the main interest of a story about me being like ‘the boy in the bubble’.

So I’ll start with the training camp, which was a trip I really enjoyed as being a Queensland boy I love to break up the Victorian winter with a bit of sunshine and the far north didn’t disappoint.

I got to train outdoors and really focus on my preparation and having my good mate Ky Hurst around didn’t hurt either.

We then went to Sydney for the Grand Prix meet and I was very happy with the way I swam. I hadn’t tapered at all so to swim a 3.46 in the 400 freestyle and break 15 minutes for the 1500 freestyle for the first time at a small meet was a huge confidence boost for me. For the record I swam 14.51.

As I said it gives me plenty of confidence heading in to the Olympic Games in Beijing but I will continue to train hard and attempt to improve as I search for gold medals, particularly in the 1500 metres in what will be my last Olympics.

While I probably won’t retire immediately afterwards I can’t see myself making it to London in another four years time, or perhaps even having the desire to.

That’s part of the reason why I have gone to great lengths to protect my health this time around, but in my view I am simply being smart about the issue and doing no more than any other athlete who wants to win in Beijing would. If that means I don’t touch handrails or whatever else so be it.

I never actually read the article but I have heard about it and while I can confirm everything written was true, including that I do wear a mask on planes, so does the rest of the swim team and have been since 2002.

Does it look a bit weird? Probably, but planes are a place where there are plenty of colds and germs due to the air conditioning and the amount of people who are on them.

I can also confirm I won’t be participating in the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Games. For me it’s really not worth it and even if I was offered the opportunity to carry the flag I would say no, despite what an honour it would be.

I would be standing for hours and I don’t want to even take the chance of jeopardising my race chances. Because that is what I am there for!

Having said all that I am certainly not going to be paranoid about colds or my health, worrying about it doesn’t help. I think I proved that in Athens when I worried a lot and got sick.

There has been plenty going on in the swimming world, but perhaps the most exciting thing was to see how well Michael Phelps swam in the US Olympic Trials.

Phelps went on to say he wants to set a record at the Games and he is such a superstar he could achieve a record haul of gold medals. It will take a swimmer right on their game to defeat him in any event.

I head off for Singapore, Malaysia and China on July 19 and I’ll post again before then.

Take care - Grant

Ever since I have been back in Australia it’s been all about training for me. It’s really all I have done as I have had little time for anything else with Beijing just around the corner.
 
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I’m glad to be home after what was a really good, but long, week at the Olympic Trials where I swam well in the 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle events and claimed my place on the Olympic team.
 
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