This morning, Laure Manaudou (FRA) took the plunge at the Font Romeu high altitude training centre in the Pyrenees under the guidance of her new coach Lionel Horter. After two weeks at altitude, she will return to her new base with Horter at Mulhouse, ending a temporary phase spent with her brother Nicholas back home in Ambérieu-en-Bugey, Ain.

Since Melbourne 2007, where she won the 200m (in a world record) and 400m freestyle (taking down Tracey Wickham's 1978 stunner of a championship record) titles, Manaudou has quit her mentor Philippe Lucas, taken up training in Italy with Paolo Penso in pursuit of a love affair with Luca Marin (ITA) - one that is now over - then turned her back on the Italians for a return home. And now, Horter gets the pleasure and pain of leading the Olympic 400m champion to her date with destiny in Beijing in August (provided there is no further change of heart, of course). The move looks more permanent that the others in the sense that it comes with the blessing and official agreement of the Swimming Dreams company managed by her father, Jean-Luc, and her agent and lawyer Didier Poulmaire.

Mulhouse Olympic Natation is managed by Laurent Horter, the father of the head coach, who guided Roxana Maracineanu to the 1998 world title over 200m backstroke at Perth Western Australia. Maracineanu is now a writer with L'Equipe, the sports paper that has done much of the running on the Manaudou story. Clichy and Lagardère Paris Racing were other bases considered as suitable for Manaudou but the swimmer opted for Horter and Mulhouse, in Alsace, close to the border with Germany and the Black Forest.

Rare are the occasions in history where a swimmer harbouring a potential to win three Olympic titles and other solo medals has switched coach three times within 18 months of the big moment. Perhaps Manaudou will make history in more ways than one.