Krayzelburg - the unbeaten icon

Lenny Krayzelburg won the 200m backstroke gold

Lenny Krayzelburg's gold medal in the 200m backstroke caught Olympic silver medallist Sharron Davies' eye, but she is perplexed by the continuing failures of the British team.

There were a lot of people who came to the Sydney Olympics as swimming icons, people like Ian Thorpe and Alexander Popov, but only one of them has remained unbeaten throughout the Games so far.

That man is American Lenny Krayzelburg, who has won a gold in the 200m backstroke to add to the 100m medal he won on Monday.

For me, his victory in the 200m was the race of the evening - because Krayzelburg is such a supreme champion. It was a bit tough in the last 10 yards - he showed more pain than in the last few races - but he was still very convincing.

He is a very interesting character. He has had to work very hard for what he has got.

His family left Russia when he was a young boy, about seven or eight, because they were Jewish - and in an interview we did with him he said he still felt 50% Russian.

When his family arrived in America, his father couldn't get a job for the first 10 months or so.

Ridiculous hours

Krayzelburg was having to hold down a part-time job, go to college and travel an hour backwards and forwards to training to keep his swimming going.

Before that he had been in the Russian system, having to do a ridiculous number of hours as a young child. So he has put in his time.

That, for me, was the swim of the night, but you have to mention Inge de Bruijn winning another gold medal in an astonishing race.

I'm not going to comment on all the rumours surrounding her, beyond saying that a lot of them are put out by the Americans, and they can be very hypocritical.

Foster is probably Britain's last swimming medal hope

It was great that the Italians did well, with Massimiliano Rosolino in tears after winning the Men's 200m individual medley final.

And Hungarian Agnes Kovacs, who took gold in the women's 200m breastroke final, was very emotional and that was a good race.

In general, It was a good evening's swimming again, although it was another disappointing session for Britain.

All that was needed was for them to swim to their abilities to be in finals, but something is not working for them, and I get as frustrated for them as they do.

No way do these athletes do all this training, give up so much, effectively swim for nothing, and come here with the intention of not swimming very well.

I'm sure they are getting slagged off in the press, and yes, it is frustrating, but there is no way these athletes are doing it deliberately.

Mystery

I don't know if it's the nerves that are affecting them, whether the atmosphere is getting to them - the 80,000 people cheering for Australia and America - or if it's performing on the big stage. Whatever, it's a mystery.

Most of them have performed in big environments before, like European Championships and Commonwealth Games, and been successful.

Realistically, Mark Foster, who has qualified for the 50m freestyle final, is probably our last chance for a medal in the pool.

His start was very good, although he wasn't very quick off the blocks, he got about 30m down and had a good look at everybody.and his finish was quite lazy. So he knows there is room for improvement, but also that he has as good a chance as the other seven people.

There is no reason why he shouldn't win a medal, but I don't want to put a curse on him, and I think the person to beat will be Popov.