Australian swimmers are shunning expectations of setting a fresh high-water mark with a record-breaking Commonwealth Games.
The Dolphins team assembled in Birmingham is being labelled as Australia’s best-ever.
Pundits predict Australia’s largest haul of medals at a Commonwealth Games pool.
The benchmark is the 2018 Gold Coast Games when Australian swimmers won a record 28 gold medals of the 50 on offer.
Overall, Australia’s swimmers captured 73 of the 149 medals at the Gold Coast pool.
Four years on, the swim team appears even stronger with a blend of Olympic and world champions and emerging talent.
But such hype makes Swimming Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor a tad uneasy.
Taylor won’t make a medal forecast for Birmingham.
And he says it’s futile for his swimmers to absorb any of the external expectations.
“The athletes themselves are so motivated to perform, I am not sure anyone has expectations higher than themselves as far as what they want to achieve,” Taylor told AAP.
“We don’t talk about outcomes. We just talk about performing when it matters.
“You can’t control what other people do. Other athletes just might be better than you on the day and that is the way it is.
“As long as you can put your best foot forward, that is all we’re looking for.”
But just what will constitute a successful Australian swim campaign at the Birmingham Games when competition starts from Friday?
“That is for others to judge,” Taylor said.
“We just go there and try to perform at our best.
“However many medals we can get … we will take as many as we can.
“There are certain standards we will definitely measure against and the one that I would say is very clear to me is ‘how did you swim at trials’ and ‘can you swim as well as you did then or better?’
“If you can do that, then things usually happen.
“Equalling their time or going quicker, that is a really important measure.”
Taylor also wasn’t buying into assumptions of another Australian medal procession at the Commonwealth Games pool.
“There are some quality athletes in the Commonwealth. We’re going to have some really hard races,” he said.
“The Commonwealth Games have got rich history of famous Australian athletes and swimmers who have gone before us.
“It’s a celebration of our nation and it’s representing our country and competing at an international competition in a multi-sport environment where it’s Olympic-esque in a sense.
“Really, it’s about wearing the green and gold and it’s also just like any opportunity to compete on an international stage … be proud, you’re representing your country.”
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