Jack Bauerle, USA women's coach, replaced pressure with incentive almost the moment the US trials were done in Omaha. With one hand he patted American women on the back, for being 'stronger' in relation to the Dolphins than they were pre-trials, with the other hand he pusheshis charges along by showing them that they, not Australia, are chasing. Less comfortable to be hunted.

Katie Hoff in the 400m individual medley, Natalie Coughlin and Hayley McGregory in the 100m backstroke and Margaret Hoelzer in the 200m backstroke all set world records in Omaha but Bauerle swept away pressure from his whole team when he told reporters: 'We feel like we have been the underdogs since the last Olympics and through (last year's) world championships and we still feel like that. We have a lot to prove and still need to get better.'

The score, as noted by The Australian today, is seven events to six in Australia's favour. Relays will count much towards the final results and all events will be affected by swimmers from other nations, of course. The duel is what occupies the minds of superpowers but Bauerle is quick to acknowledge that the threat is deeper and wider than ever, telling Nicole Jeffery at The Australian: 'We have a gigantic challenge, not just from Australia but The Netherlands and Germany. We have our work cut out for us. I think the Australian ladies' relays are some of the best we have ever seen. Their medley relay doesn't have a chink in the armour. Australia looks unbeatable (in that event). Their backstroke has come up and the breaststroke girl [Leisel Jones] is such a great trump card to have and then they have the fastest freestyler in the pool [Libby Trickett, nee Lenton]. It will take a gargantuan effort.'

Among men, of course, there is only one superpower and one superfish: the US and Michael Phelps. They lead the world in nine solo events and could go 1-2 in five or six events.

From Europe, some things have yet to be revealed, partly because of the bodysuit saga, regardless of whether people thing suit or doping or both. The science is in the water and on the clock. Never in the history of swimming has an entire community raced so closely within a band of improvement clustered around 2%. The suit is here to stay and some say that its effect does not matter, that questions are tired. Dictators will tell you the same about any number of issues that stray from what they want to talk about. None of which makes the real issue go away.

In Beijing, we will see much more coverage and debate about the suit as the non-swimming sports and news media descend on the sport for their four-yearly season in the pool. Understandable that swimming and swimmers would wish us all only to celebrate the world records and the gains being made without reference to what might be causing it but the Fourth Estate thinks differently - and is a million miles away from the cheerleaders who sometimes sit on false pretense up in the press stands and elsewhere in the gallery. The Fourth Estate is trained to question all things, including the aberration and the absurd. Some of the questions will be absurd, of course. But better they be put and debate continues than allow the public relations message and the voice of Big Brother to hold sway.