“I remember Susie O’Neill announcing that she hadn’t slept for three nights at a time when her 200 metres butterfly was nearing … I had an awful foreboding on the day … I believed she could swim 2:04:00 … and no-one was going to get near her. But on that night of September 20, 2000, we didn’t see the best of Susie, and American Misty Hyman beat her clearly, 2:05.88 to 2:06.58.”

So wrote head coach to Australia Don Talbot in his autobiography Nothing But The Best.

In the book, sleeplessness is linked to the excitement of the first day of action when Ian Thorpe took the 400m free and then brought the 4x100m free quartet home to gold:

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A quarter of a century ago this week, Ian Thorpe was busy setting a World record a day for three days at Olympic Trials. Plus, our memory of Act 1, Scene 1 at Sydney 2000; and our celebration of his career when he retired in 2006

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

In fact, O’Neill’s sleeplessness had a touch more to do with her own tour of successful duty, the one Talbot pays off in four words summing up the golden honour board of the Dolphins in Sydney - Susie O’Neill: 200m freestyle.