The Christmas/New Year holiday may have seen much of the world put its feet up but the big medal hopes for the podium in Beijing worked on. Among them, Kate Ziegler and Natalie Coughlin, of the US, and some of Australia's finest will test themselves at the Victorian championships in Melbourne from Friday this week.

The 800 and 1,500m world champion is on tour Down Under with the US junior squad, while the 100m backstroke champion from Melbourne 2007 is in the Dolphins' den for her annual pilgrimage with the University of California, Berkeley, team.

The Victoria meet will see Grant Hackett race 100 to 800m freestyle, while Coughlin will take on Olympic 100m champion Jodie Henry and former Australia team member Alice Mills over 50 and 100m freestyle.