Kate Ziegler, as we know, can go the distance, but now she is working well on getting sharper at the sharp end of the scale. At the Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo, California, she clocked a 1:58.80 that would have challenged any effort over on tour in Europe.

That effort blew away the 2:00.25 meet record held since 2000 by Japan's Maki Mika. Ziegler, who started the meet with an 8:24.40 800m free and progressed to a 4:05.44 over 400m free the day after, will need the speed of a world-class 200m freestyle if she is to compete with the 400m times established of late by Laure Manaudou, of France.

Also breaking meet records set a while back by US Olympians were Rebecca Soni, on a 2:27.10 200m breaststroke and faster than Amanda Beard at Mission Viejo, and world 100m freestyle record holder Britta Steffen, with a 25.89 that replaced Jenny Thompson on the pool books by 0.01sec ten years on.