Australian swimming hero Grant Hackett will return to the pool this weekend, six years after retirement, and 15 years since his first Olympic triumph.
34-year-old Hackett will line up at the scene of his two gold medal wins at Sydney Olympic Park to compete in the Australian Swimming Championships, which begin this Friday.
Hackett will race in the 400m freestyle on Friday and the 200m on Saturday, however has ruled out a return to the 1500m event that he won gold for in 2000 in Sydney and again in Athens in 2004.
Although posting some promising times in training, Hackett is not putting large amounts of pressure on himself.
“I don’t have expectations like I did before and I sort of reserve the right to pull out at anytime,” he said.
Hackett has teamed up with his former coach Denis Cotterell, who said that he still sees Hackett’s potential.
“He trains like he used to and that’s as hard as anyone can possibly go,” Cotterell said.
Hackett told ABC News that upheaval in his personal life had prompted his return to the pool, after very public family custody issues and treatment for issues with the sleeping drug Stilnox.
However, he stressed this an Olympic comeback for Rio in 2016 is not on the cards, saying “People talk about the Olympic Games but that is something I am not even thinking about.”
“I just want to enjoy swimming and hopefully swim fast.”
