EAMON Sullivan says becoming the world’s fastest swimmer will count for nothing if he doesn’t back it up with a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
The sprint sensation has targeted next month’s Olympic trials for his next world record assault following his remarkable showing at the NSW titles.
“You don’t swim to swim a world record where no-one sees it and not get a gold medal at an Olympic Games,” the 22-year-old said.
“That is something I don’t want to take for granted.
“While you don’t break world records every day and I want to really enjoy this, I don’t want to get ahead of myself and make this my pinnacle.
”(I want to) make sure I keep swimming faster.
“I am going to be doing everything in my power in the next few weeks to make sure I peak at trials and swim faster again and make sure it does not go to my head.”
The newest 50m freestyle world record holder has extra incentive to break new ground at the trials from March 22-29 in Sydney - to please his mother, Pam, who was upset at missing the flying lap.
“My mother was crying of course, she was a bit devastated that she was not here to see it,” Sullivan said.
“So I am hoping that come trials I can do something just as good.”
Sullivan’s girlfriend and national squad teammate Stephanie Rice also missed his 50m swim - she had flown back to Brisbane early following the heats in Sydney.
His time of 21.56 seconds in the 50m erased Alex Popov’s (21.64s) mark and completed his emergence as one of Australia’s high-profile swimmers.
That he broke the Commonwealth record in the 100m 90 minutes later has only added to his growing status.
Sullivan had been inundated with calls of congratulations from the likes of Ian Thorpe and Michael Klim along with family and friends from Perth.
Sullivan celebrated his world record with a chicken parmigiana and “a single beer, unfortunately” before catching the encore of Melbourne ganglands series Underbelly.
After catching three-and-a-half hours of sleep, the unflappable swimmer undertook a five-hour marathon of media commitments before catching a flight back home.
He already had three personal sponsors but can expect plenty more interest in the lead-up to the Olympics.
His coach, Grant Stoelwinder, said the real test was to come.
“It is like getting an A-plus in a school assignment - when it comes to sitting the proper exam is when you want to perform,” he said.
“The real event is getting on the team, funny things happen at Olympic trials and there are a lot of fast men around at the moment.
“I am sure that world record is not going to stay there long.”
Stoelwinder feared the injury-prone swimmer had hurt himself prior to his career-changing swim.
He whacked his wrist into another swimmer in the warm-up but fortunately the damage wasn’t too severe.
“I thought, what has he done here? Has he chipped the bone or something? There is always a scare. He does a bit of bike riding but I might have to get him off the road.”
AAP
Source: Sullivan has eyes on golden prize
