PAUL PALMER

© ALLSPORT

WEEK 4
Date: August 21

Australia is the place to be

A twenty-four hour flight. Just think about it.

Twenty-four hours stuck in cattle class, seemingly going nowhere with nothing to do, while the world around you jumps forwards nine hours.

When the wheels touch down in some foreign destination the chances are you will be blurry eyed, wearing the wrong clothes and enthusiastic only about the prospect of getting some decent sleep.

For me the destination is Melbourne, Britain's wintry summer has been swapped for Australia's summery winter, and suddenly the enthusiasm is now for anything but sleep ...

The trip to Melbourne signals the start of the Olympics. No more the mundane training sessions in Bath, where the adrenaline flow can start to slow due to the over-familiarity of the surroundings.

Instead I find myself in a vibrant city, alive with the country's buzz of an impending Olympics. I find myself in a land incredibly proud to be staging the Games...I find myself in an environment where hype and excitement are contagious.

I now have the best part of a month to soak up the atmosphere in this sports-mad country. There is no need to worry about the effects of the flight and its incumbent jet-lag - a week to ten days sorts that little problem out - instead there is a mini tour of Australia to undertake and four weeks of perfect preparation to savour.

So why Melbourne? Why not Sydney? After all, surely the best place to get all the razzmatazz of an Olympics is the host city itself?

That may be true, but then there's overkill to consider. While I feel that I am giving myself the best opportunity to succeed by coming out to Australia reasonably early I also feel it would be folly to pitch up in Sydney with the Games still a month away.

Melbourne is close enough to the Olympics to get that extra motivation, but remote enough to be able to keep a sense of perspective on things. To be in Sydney this early would, I feel, be like living in a pressure cooker for a month - it would just become too intense.

So, until the end of August, Melbourne is my new home - and what a great home it is!

With its famed tram service, its superb sports stadiums and the easy-going attitude of the people it seems like a perfect place in which to start the final leg of this four-year marathon.

Although I have only been here a couple of days I already feel that, mentally, I am a better athlete. The excitement and anticipation that had been slowly bubbling away while I was in England has now erupted.

Every swim session is a chance to better myself and free time seems to be spent straining for the next day to arrive.

I can taste the Games - they are so close now that they cannot come soon enough and it is this feeling that sums up why I do sport to this level. The whirlwind of emotions generated by the Olympic Games sucks me up. It's a ride that will live with me for years to come.

With less than a month to go to the big event, the best place in the world for me right now is Australia.

Read Paul's diary for WEEK 1 ...

Read Paul's diary for WEEK 2 ...

Read Paul's diary for WEEK 3 ...

Read Paul's diary for WEEK 5 ...