My taper for the 2012 London Olympics is very similar to all of my previous tapers for important national & international competition. Bohly and I have been working together as coach and swimmer for 10 years now and over the years we have changed it a little with small adjustments here and there but basically we have it down to a fine art. The object of the taper is to have the swimmer at their absolute peak performance for the first day of competition and during the meet.

Our squad departed Brisbane on 28th June for Europe and for the last 18 days we have been training in Montpelier, France. Bohly started my taper a couple of weeks ago as this Olympic preparation requires a longer taper. Almost every taper I tend to fall sick for a few days because of the change in workload and this taper is no different. I felt really exhausted and tired 2 days into the taper and had to rest up in the hotel while the remainder of the squad travelled to watch the Tour de France which was annoying at the time. No sooner had I started to recover from this when I was struck down with a vomiting bug which meant that my roomie, Bronte had to be moved into another room to protect her from getting sick. It is frustrating when things like this happen because it is out of your control and there is nothing you can do but rest up and get well. It also means that I can’t work at an intense level so once I was over the vomiting we had to lighten up the workload which allowed me to recover. 

The level of competition dictates the degree of the taper and the Olympic Games is the pinnacle of competitions. The taper is crucial to your performance and getting this right is of the utmost importance.