Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2007-07-20 From: Xinhuanet

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 19 (Xinhua) — Brazil’s swimmer Thiago Pereira, who won three gold medals in as many finals he has been in so far at the 2007 Pan American Games, is preparing to face U.S. champion Michael Phelps in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“We will have to work hard in order to pursue such phenomenon,” said Pereira’s coach, Fernando Vanzella, on Thursday. According to him, the Brazilian swimmer is getting very close to the record times achieved by Phelps in the backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke events.

However, Vanzella admits that the Olympics are a bigger challenge than the Pan Am Games, and that any medal in Beijing will mean “a great achievement to Brazil”.

The coach stressed that the three medals won in the Games will serve as motivators to Pereira’s practice. The athlete got two golds on Tuesday, in the 400 meters medley and in then 4×200m free relay, breaking the Pan Am Games record on both occasions, and another gold on Thursday, in the 200m backstroke.

The finals for the 200m individual medley, in which Pereira is regarded as a specialist, will be held on Friday. And he will still have the chance to win other medals, in the 200m breaststroke, on Saturday, and in the 100m backstroke and 4×100m medley relay, on Sunday.

Pereira told the local press on Thursday that he believes his biggest challenges will take place on Sunday. He thinks the American swimmers will offer a great deal of difficulty to his victory, especially in the backstroke, an event in which they hold the best records. He also said that he fears tiredness may represent another adversary, as it will be the last day for the swimming competitions in the Games.

“But, especially because it will be the last day, I will give it all,” stressed Pereira, who is close to accomplish the same feat as Brazilian swimmer Fernando Scherer, who won four gold medals in the 1999 Pan Am Games, in Winnipeg, Canada.

In his coach’s point of view, he is on his way to become one of Brazil’s most successful swimmers in history, like Scherer and Gustavo Borges, the Brazilian who won the biggest number of Olympic medals ever (four).