Records not enough for 'bully' Bill

"The reason for our success is not me,'' he insisted. "We have a group of professional athletes and very committed coaches who as a team have bought into a concept of new ideas, new preparation and new standards that they haven't had before.

"Together they decided to change things. I've probably given them some direction but I couldn't have done it if they hadn't bought into it.

"It irritates me when people tell me Britain is the most improved swimming nation in the world. We can do so much more than that. I believe Britain's Olympic medals will be won or lost between now and the end of this year.

"So the team were back in the pool doing extensive testing at Loughborough last Monday, the day after the World Championships ended in Barcelona. We wanted to identify what went well and what areas we could improve on.

"Now they are preparing for the National Short Course Championships in Stockport beginning on the 14th, and about a third of them go out to Korea the day after that ends for the World Student Games. Then they will have two weeks off before going to a five-week tough training camp in Florida.

"The two-week break will be their only time off between now and the Olympics. It's important they have a really good rest mentally, although physically they'll need to do some running and dry-land work so they don't completely lose fitness."

The word most frequently associated with Sweetenham is 'bully', for example his ridiculing James Gibson's training schedule in front of his international team-mates at the start of this year.

But in Barcelona, the 23-year-old from Essex won the 50m breaststroke to become Britain's first world swimming champion for almost 30 years, and he is full of praise for Sweetenham.

"Bill says things to wind you up and it works," explained Gibson. "It makes you do a better job. I'm one of those people who needs a good kick up the backside. Bill isn't really a dictator. He's a leader."

But presumably we can safely assume that Sweetenham is not the kind of person who needs to be liked?

"I hope most of the swimmers on the team like me," he replied unexpectedly. "I don't need it, but I think you would find the vast majority do. Athletes like belonging to something strong. They take pride in doing things better than everyone else. In training, we play motivational games and do tremendously enjoyable things.

"These stories that go around about me bullying them are very uninformed. I bet if we did a survey the British team would be the happiest in world swimming."

Actually, he could be right. "I've never seen the British team so supportive, so happy," stated Gibson. "When Bill went on his first senior tour in 2001 the camp was full of whingeing and moaning. Now there's no bitchiness any more. We've really bonded."

Yet rumours of Sweetenham's harshness persist. It was said he gave Barnet's Sarah Price a hard time at the World Championships for finishing eighth in the 200m backstroke instead of winning another medal to go with Katy Sexton's gold.

"No," he insisted. "At these times you have to be compassionate, have empathy for the athlete and make them understand that one performance doesn't make a career. An athlete never underperforms because they want to.

"Circumstances made it happen. You have to get the athlete to take responsibility, so that in future they will make the environment work for them rather than be a victim of that environment.

"We don't know yet why Sarah came eighth. It can be very complex eliminating all the things that the problem isn't before you find out what it is. I told her it wasn't what she was capable of and that she knew she could do better. It's no good telling her what a great swim it was."

He refuses to make any forecasts about Athens.

"It's my job to protect the swimmers from that kind of pressure,'' he said. "But I'll tell you, when I first joined the team in November 2000 it was one of the least professional teams I had ever known.

"Today it is the most professional team I have ever been involved with. They have the highest expectations of themselves. They have standards other teams can't look to. I have tremendous pride in them and I know it will continue to grow."