Jones happy to be Aussie swim 'mother'

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) –

Australia’s Leisel Jones competes in the women’s 100m breaststroke final at the Santa Clara International Grand Prix on June 3. Jones won the 100 metres breaststroke in Beijing four years ago, when she also helped Australia take the 4x100m medley relay.

Leisel Jones may be 26 but the Australia swimming star is about to embark on her fourth Olympic Games.

And for Jones part of her role at London 2012 is to play “mother” to the “kids” on the Australian team and help them achieve Games glory — even if it means her own medal ambitions take a back seat.

Jones won the 100 metres breaststroke in Beijing four years ago, when she also helped Australia take the 4x100m medley relay.

But Jones is now keen to see how her team-mates get on.

“I just can’t wait to see how they will perform,” she said at the Australia swimming team’s pre-Games camp here on Monday.

“Yes, it’s just been a really different role for me this year. I’m just really looking forward to taking on this role, a bit of a mother-hand role, looking after the younger kids.”

One of those is James Magnussen, the 21-year-old 100m freestyle world champion who is competing at his first Olympic Games.

“I love him,” said Jones. “I think he’s brought so much personality to this team. He really made it quite vibrant and quite interesting.

“And I think he certainly has it, he’s been training hard, he’s been saying that he is out there doing it, so I think if he can pull it all together on the day, absolutely I think he can do it.”

It was a view echoed by Australian coach Brant Best, who said of Magnussen: “He’s a very confident boy, but over-confidence is not a problem. We work on channelling his confidence, so over-confidence is not an issue.”

As for Magnussen himself, the man nicknamed ‘The Missile’ said: “I feel like, you know, we’ve spent a good 12 months, 12 to 25 months now focusing on this single goal, and World Championship was just building up to this year.

“And I feel like I’m really at my peak now.

“I’m starting to get excited now. But I’m just trying to stay as relaxed and focus as I can. I’m the sort of person who, the more relaxed and the more enjoying myself I am, the quicker I swim so — keeping pretty calm and collected at the moment I think.”

Meanwhile Jones insisted she was just happy to be at a fourth Games.

“There is no pressure at all. I’ve achieved everything I ever wanted to in this sport.

“This is pretty much the icing on the cake for me. I’ve achieved everything I wanted and four Olympics was definitely a challenge.”