Laure Manaudou has declared the 200m backstroke a strong possibility for Beijing 2008 after concluding that the 800m freestyle that unfolds on the same day in China may be an event too far for her ailing right shoulder to endure, at least in terms of the training levels she would need to commit to.

Speaking to the French media after her first training set at Mulhouse with coach Lionel Horter, her fourth mentor within a year, Manaudou explained her choice. In an interview with Benoit Lallement at L'Equipe, she said: 'I came to win the Games! To be able to train in a 50m pool with a good group. For the coach too. I would prefer to have my brother and parents with me, but this is just how it is.'

The decision to leave her family once more was not a hard one to take, she said, but delivering the news to her brother Nicolas was 'not easy'. He did not take the news well. He had, said the swimmer, 'invested much'. Her decision has strained their relationship but with time, things would get better. 'I made this decision for my career. I had a relationship of coach and swimmer with Nico. Now I want to rediscover a family relationship with my brother.' She had left purely because she needed to train in a 50-metre pool.

Why, then, did she not go straight to Mulhouse on her return from Italy in August? 'It was a necessary journey of getting to know my family again. It enabled me to find calm, serenity, happiness and to forget everything that had happened ... I had been at a very low point. I don't regret for a moment my four months back at Ambérieu. Whilst there, alot of things were put in place for me ... but I think people will understand my choice. It was for my career.'

Asked about her first training session at Mulhouse, she said: 'It went very well. It passed quickly! I have pain in my right shoulder ... I did what I could.'

As far as preparations for Beijing are going, she said: 'Once all is well in the head, the rest follows.' The shoulder pain was the biggest obstacle but it had not forced her to take time out of the water so far. It had, however, helped her consider the 200m backstroke as a strong option in favour of the 800m freestyle. While the way may be clearer for Kate Ziegler, the 200m backstroke women may wish to dig deeper in training from here on: 'At the Games, I will race 200 and 400m, the 100m back. The 800 (free) and 200m backstroke are on the same day so it's a question of choosing. That will depend on what happens in training,' said Manaudou.

The potential is obvious: if Manaudou can repeat a 1:55 freestyle and a 59sec 100m back, she can surely threaten the second oldest women's world record on the books: Krisztina Egerszegi's 2:06.62 from Athens 1991.

She was ready to train just as gard as she had with Philippe Lucas. 'I am ready to do anything it takes to become Olympic champion, that's the most important thing for me.' She would stay in Mulhouse until then, but was unsure what might happen beyond Beijing.

Asked about Benjamin Stasiulis, her new boyfriend, also based at Mulhouse, she said: 'I'm there to train, for sport. The rest is my private life and I don't want to talk about it.'