Despite James Magnussen’s dominant displays in Shanghai last summer, USA-based sprint coach Brett Hawke from Australia still believes that his former charge, world recorder-holder in the men’s 100 freestyle, Cesar Cielo is the man to beat come London Olympics 2012.
‘I still think Cesar is the best swimmer in the world,” he said. ”It’s going to be a great battle, but I wouldn’t be handing the gold medal off to James at this point in time. When you’ve got an athlete like Cesar and a couple of others around the world who are very focused and determined and have the ability, I think you’re going to see a pretty good race.
”Cesar has a strong second 50, it’s not as strong as Magnussen’s … but Cesar has death-defying speed.
”There’s very few athletes in the world who can hold the water and pull it the way Cesar can, so I would be more fearful of that type of power than I would a second 50.”
Read more here in the Sydney Morning Herald
Image courtesy of EmmyMik, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
