Trickett excited by early return to racing

Libby Trickett is excited by the prospect of racing Alicia Coutts and other new
leaders of Australian swimming in an early comeback to competition.
Three-time Olympic gold medallist Trickett will make her return in a new two-day,
four-team event in Sydney from January 29-30.
The Summer Swim Series at North Sydney pool will feature most of the big names
including Coutts, who burst to the fore with five Commonwealth Games gold medals in
Delhi in October, Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jess Schipper, Eamon Sullivan, Andrew
Lauterstein, and Geoff Huegill.
It comes earlier than Trickett expected after announcing her comeback from
retirement in September when world body FINA told her she'd have to wait nine months
to be able to compete under their anti-doping code.
She can race in the one-off Sydney meet because it's not a selection event, or a
meet based on FINA point scores.
Trickett said she was looking forward to racing "all the girls".
"Em Seebohm, I think she's made some great steps forward this year, Alicia Coutts
obviously did amazingly well and then there's the old cohorts of (Jess) Schipper and
Marieke Guehrer, (so) it's going to be really exciting," Trickett said at the launch
on Tuesday.
"I have no idea how fit I'm going to be in January and I'll have just come back from
Mexico from altitude training so chances are I'm going to be absolutely exhausted
and jet-lagged.
"But it provides for exciting challenges, mentally and physically."
The swimmers will be split into four teams of 14 for the event with retired stars
Linley Frame, Susie O'Neill, Matt Welsh and Michael Klim each captaining a team.
Trickett admits she has her sights on the London Olympics in 2012 but won't get
ahead of herself.
"If you start going 'oh my God it's only 22 months until the Olympic Games', it
starts to get really overwhelming," she said.
"For me I just want to be a part of the Australian swim team again.
"That's the big goal at the moment and other than that I just want to see how fast I
can get, how fit I can get and how strong I can get..
"I'm lucky if I get back to my best then I am going to be in the mix to win medals."