Sisterhood of Champions

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Before they arrived in Athens, the two swimmers were known for their struggles rather than their successes. Petria Thomas, 28, had spent a long stretch of her career wrestling with a body that kept letting her down; if she wasn't recovering from another shoulder reconstruction she was seen as the dependable No. 2, lingering in the shadow of a now-retired rival known as Madame Butterfly. Jodie Henry, 20, was not known outside swimming circles. She, too, had experienced tough times in a short career. Her nerves could reduce the sprinting dynamo to a heaving wreck. But by the end of the eight-day Olympic swimming meet, the two Australians had come into their own - and the limelight - as the standout females at the pool, each taking home three gold medals."There were times when I never knew if I'd be able to use my arm properly again," said Thomas after winning the 100-m butterfly. "Let alone swim - or swim well." After three Olympics, Thomas is turning her thoughts to retirement. "You can't go on forever," she said after swimming a spectacular butterfly leg as part of the winning 100-m medley relay team. As for Henry, known for her slow starts and, now, for breaking world records, she's just opened her fame account. She's already being mentioned in the same breath as legends Dawn Fraser and Shane Gould. A marketer's dream, Henry appears set to become Australia's new, ever smiling, Queen of Swimming. Trying to play down the attention and any dramatic changes her success may bring, the modest Brisbaneite said about her exploits: "It's just a sport. It's great to have a gold medal but, you know, the people I go home to will be the same people I went away from."

In Athens, Australia's women have outshone the men in an awesome display of Girl Power - not just in the pool but in cycling and shooting. "Women generally in sport aren't perceived as well as men are," Henry said after her 100-m freestyle win, "and women who get up and do as well as men are great." Gould, the Golden Girl from Munich in 1972, reckons Australia's women swimmers are looking darn good these days: "We've got more ranked in the Top 10 than there has been for quite a number of years," she says, "and part of that is because of excellent coaching education, and coaches willing to experiment and having the room to experiment."

Thomas and Henry somehow managed to trump even better-known compatriots Ian Thorpe (who won the 200-m and 400-m freestyle) and Grant Hackett (who retained his 1,500-m crown) in the medal and publicity stakes. The two swimmers also helped Australia's women to finish ahead of their U.S. counterparts in the country rankings, thanks to their team's world-record breaking performances in the 100-m freestyle and 100-m medley relays. And the exploits of newcomers such as Lisbeth Lenton, Alice Mills and Jessicah Schipper, and more experienced performers such as breaststrokers Brooke Hanson and Leisel Jones, revealed a depth of swimming talent few Australians knew was there.

This burst of greatness has been put down to Australia's new head coach Leigh Nugent, and a concerted effort since the Sydney Games to put muscle into the female ranks - "a very, very clear focus," explains rising Melbourne coach Rohan Taylor, "to strengthen the women's program within the national body." As well, coaches have taken a new, more personalized approach to nurturing their young female talent. "We're speaking to the women in a language they understand," Nugent said. "The team environment now is a lot more equal. Perhaps in the past the women subconsciously felt they were not in the same class as the men. When your men are dominant you tend to talk more men's talk when you are addressing the team. We've put strategies in place to change the environment. We've spoken to coaches and they're more aware now that women need to be treated differently." Coach Taylor elaborates on that perceived difference: "They need to be encouraged in a different way," he says. "They definitely like positive feedback. I don't know if the males are too fussed if they get positive feedback, but I think the girls thrive on it. Getting them in their own environment together, you can obviously hone your skills in communicating to them a lot more effectively." Female swimmers also require "a different type of motivation," he says. "You can't get into their ears and start pumping them up like footy players. They need to have a purpose, they need to work towards something."

In this case, the Olympics has provided that sense of purpose. But then, as Gould points out (citing Dennis Phillips' 2001 book, Australian Women at the Olympic Games) women athletes have always outperformed the men. "I think it's just perception ... every four years we go, Wow! Women are doing really well. But women are always doing well; it's just not being reported," she says. What's different in the pool, she insists, is a new style of coaching adopting techniques from sports beyond swimming; Stephan Widmer (Lenton) and Shannon Rollason (Henry and Mills) exemplify this cross-training approach. Gould also mentions the feminine touch of Ian Thorpe's coach, Tracey Menzies: "The younger coaches are trying new things away from the (conventional) culture." After their performances in the Athens hothouse, the women of Australian swimming - and their sisters in other events - are moving to the center of the sporting stage, decked out in laurels and gold.