It's all your fault, Bill

As a result, our swimmers in Athens are not even achieving personal bests - their best times would have got them on the rostrum. There is no point in doing your best times earlier in the year instead of when it counts: in the Olympic pool.

By contrast, the Americans held their trials just three weeks before the Olympics, which is far better. Swimmers can aim to peak at just the right time. And their team is flying. If we don't want to do that, we could pre-select swimmers - give our best competitors a guaranteed place in the team, based on their known performances. That way they don't have to peak four months before the Olympics.

The other major problem is the Sweetenham regime.

He took over the team with a hardman image. He was going to knock us into shape. But scaring people doesn't make them mentally tougher.

I think he has done some good over the past three years but his work ethic is wrong; the world has moved away from just swimming thousands of lengths a week. It should be about quality, not quantity. Everyone has had to fit into his system, but this means that none of our swimmers has been treated as individuals. When you are a serious sportsman or woman, ultimately, you know what works for you - in training, in lifestyle and so on. But Bill Sweetenham doesn't allow personal freedom. You are not allowed to do your own thing.

He also makes all our youngsters analyse things too much. Bill has been telling the swimmers for four years that the Olympics is an unrelenting environment and unforgiving - I just think he has scared people before they even get there. The thing about the Olympics is you take part and you enjoy the experience - not suffer it. At the end of the day, our swimmers - with their times before the Games - have proved they can do it. But they haven't been doing it in Athens. They have done everything for this guy. They have done what he believes in - and look what has happened. What faith can anyone have in his system?

Why has our swimming authority already tied Bill in for another four years before his ideas proved themselves at an Olympics?

So, in the end, everything and everyone in our swimming team was geared towards the Olympics. And we have done well along the way - hence the expectation of great things. But actually Bill Sweetenham hasn't come through with the goods at the time he said that it really counted. And there will be a lot of unhappy people in British swimming right now.