Melbourne: Australia is attempting to shield the pressure of expectation off its hot-shot women swimmers in the countdown to Thursday's Commonwealth Games competition in the pool.
The golden girls, led by world record-breakers Libby Lenton and Leisel Jones, are tipped to win 15 of the 19 events and they are firmly in the spotlight following withdrawals of superstars Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
Their pull-outs have drastically lowered medal hopes in the men's team and it is expected that the women will carry the lion's share of the medals for Australia in swimming, which is historically the country's strength at the Commonwealth Games.
Australia's swimmers have won 218, over one-third, of their country's total haul of 646 gold medals since the first Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930.
But Australian swimming team leaders on Sunday stressed that it was not going to be all about the women at the Melbourne Games.
"I want to point out that we are not competing here as a women's team," team captain Giaan Rooney said.
"We are all fighting under the one banner of Australia and all of us, the men, women and multi-disability swimmers, have to swim as a team. It's irrelevant all this talk. All three components of the team have to come together."
Head coach Alan Thompson refused to predict how many gold medals his crack women swimmers, rated the best of a generation, will reap at the Games.
"I don't predict medals. If you are focussing on what's happened in the past, you might only be watching the presentation ceremony at the end," Thompson said.
"You are on a hiding to nothing. It doesn't matter where you are ranked, it all depends on the day in the pool. But we believe we could be the dominant team at the Commonwealth Games."
Coach Stephan Widmer believes Lenton is capable of becoming the first Australian to win seven gold medals at a Commonwealth Games.
The record for an Australian is six gold medals with Susie O'Neill achieving the feat at Kuala Lumpur 1998 and Thorpe at the 2002 Manchester Games.
But Lenton would not enter into the speculation at the team press conference.
"It is not a goal of mine to win seven gold medals," Lenton said. "I just want to relax and enjoy myself. I'm not thinking about times. I just think about outcomes and that tends to result in the things I want to achieve."
Jones will defend her Games gold in the 100m and 200m breaststroke after her two world record swims at the Games trials, while Lenton established a new world record in the 100m freestyle last month in the Games pool.
"Life has changed dramatically for me since the 2004 Athens Olympics. With every meet I'm learning more," Jones said.
"I have no real pressure on me since I have both breaststroke (100m/200m) world records."
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