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Australia’s swimmers can set a new record medal haul in Beijing, but they’ll never be as good as the 1956 Melbourne team according to Dawn Fraser and Laurie Lawrence.
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The Dolphins swim team collected an away record seven gold in the pool in Athens but with six world record holders in Beijing, Australia are tipped to produce their greatest Olympic haul at the Water Cube.
But master motivator Lawrence says they still won’t match the team from over half a century ago because the Melbourne unit claimed a staggering eight of 13 gold medals on offer which still stands as our best haul.
“I don’t think percentage wise we will ever top Melbourne but certainly we can get up there and we can get more gold medals, but we can’t beat it,” Lawrence told AAP.
“We will never dominate the way we did in Melbourne.
“In Melbourne we won every single freestyle event and every relay event, that is unheard of and it’s not going to happen again.”
Swimming legend Dawn Fraser agreed the Melbourne team would remain untouchable.
“I never compare teams because it is not fair because we did not have as many events as what the kids have got today,” Fraser told AAP.
“It is not really fair to compare, I still say with the number of events the swimmers have to compete in 56 compared to now there is no comparison, 56 was the greatest team ever because of the number of events.”
Aside from a record medal haul, Lawrence is also backing the 2008 Games to become the Olympic coming-out party for breaststroker Leisel Jones.
Lawrence believes breaststroker Jones will finally win individual Olympic gold after two Olympics of near misses.
“People can come from left field but I think this could be the time, without putting any pressure on Leisel, where she can be a real star for Australia,” he said.
“She came in as a 15-year-old in Sydney and was disappointed, (in) Athens had the world record and immense pressure and now she is a mature women, settled down and she is there.
“Her main opposition (American Jessica Hardy) got busted for drugs so she is out of the way and hopefully this will be a real positive Olympics for (Jones) … but it’s the Olympic Games and anything can happen.”
Meanwhile Tour de France runner up Cadel Evans confirmed he would definitely come to Beijing after fears a knee injury would rule him out of the Games.
Evans, who is still entered in the road race, had pulled out of the time trial, allowing triple world champion Michael Rogers to take his seat, but could yet ride in the August 13 race after Australia was given an extra wildcard place in the field.
Luckless Hockeyroos rookie Fiona Johnson was today ruled out of the Games due to the hamstring strain she suffered in Australia’s 2-all warm up draw with Argentina.
Shelly Liddelow, who has played just 15 internationals and is already in Beijing as a reserve, will replace Johnson while Renee Trost will join the squad as a standby player after continuing training in Perth in case an injury such as this arose.
In Haining the Australian women’s basketball team smashed Mali 112-43 in an Olympic warm-up tournament. The world champion Opals led by superstar Lauren Jackson are looking to one better than their Athens silver medal in Beijing.