WHEN the Olympic swimming trials get under way in Sheffield tomorrow the race will have as much to do with London 2012 as it will Beijing 2008 for a wave of teenage talent.

Take the Great Britain 4x100m medley relay quartet who claimed the European crown last week in a continental record of 3min 59.33sec. Only the US and Australia are ahead of Elizabeth Simmonds, Kate Haywood, Jemma Lowe and Francesca Halsall. If their speed is impressive, so too is their average age – just 17.

The European record had stood since 2002 and after the splits of Simmonds, Haywood and Lowe came Halsall’s 53.02sec freestyle leg. The 17-year-old’s split time is the fifth fastest ever behind four women who hold the Olympic, world and European titles and world and European records in the individual 100m freestyle. Average age: 25.

The British breakthrough had been long in the making. In November 2004, at a remote altitude training centre in Mexico, 13 of the most talented 12 to 15-year-old girls to be fished out of British waters, including Halsall, Lowe and Simmonds, were placed in Spartan living quarters, their choice of food was limited and in between the hardest training they had done, a tutor made sure school was not forgotten.

Beyond their obvious physical attributes, the girls had “the mongrel factor . . . attitude, tenacity, persistence, effort, determination” as described by the masterminds behind their selection, coach Bill Sweetenham and Chelsea Warr, Australian talent spotter for the British Olympic Association.

What parents and coaches saw much earlier, the world first got a flavour of in 2006, when Britain won 22 medals at the European junior championships with titles for Halsall, Simmonds and Jessica Dickons. Earlier that year, Halsall, just 15, won two silver medals in relays at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Colin Stripe, who has coached Liverpudlian Halsall from virtual beginner to European champion, describes his charge as “great fun to work with . . . she has a fabulous work ethic and she challenges you as a coach. It’s a privilege when someone like Fran walks through the door. It’s what every coach prays for”. Along with the delivery of a 50m pool, so training can be in an Olympic environment.

After the Olympic trials, Halsall will return home to a 50m pool at the £17m Aquatics Centre in Wavertree. She said: “At the moment, I train in an average 25m pool, so to have these kind of facilities at the Aquatics Centre is amazing.”

“It is going to make a tremendous difference. This will allow us to take our young swimmers to the next level,” said Stripe after a lifetime of having to wave goodbye to generations of swimmers he had nurtured early in their careers. It is also music to the ears of John Atkinson, British swimming’s Director of World-Class Programmes, tasked with delivering the best training environment in Britain. “Does a child have a 150-mile round trip to training every day?” he asked. “It’s recipe for early retirement for swimmers and knackered parents.”

Halsall is not the only one from British Swimming’s Smart Track programme set to make the Olympic team in their junior years. Simmonds has been the fastest backstroke swimmer of her age in the world since she was 13, while Lowe and Dickons are on a headlong rush towards the world top 10 on butterfly.

There is also Hannah Miley, the first sub4:40 medley swimmer in Britain, while on the Gold Coast in Australia, coach Chris Nesbit has been honing a team of British schoolboys based permanently at The Southport School in order to live as Australians live in swimming paradise.

Simmonds, who won four golds at the 2007 European Junior Championships, summed up the momentum of the London 2012 generation when she said: “It is so exciting to be a part of a success. We’ve worked hard but it’s been the biggest fun you could ever have. We’ve got a huge challenge ahead, but I can’t think of anyone whose not looking forward to it. London 2012 is a massive motivation.”

As he left Britain prematurely, Sweetenham’s last words were granted to the Smart Track crew. “They are talented young people who need nurturing and guiding. There are no guarantees on a long and complex journey from 12 to a mature athlete of twenty-something. What we do know is that these are very special young athletes indeed. This is a generation that has grown up with a different approach to their sport. Every day, they practice skills in and out of the pool in everything that they do. Winning, in the pool and in life, is a habit for them.” They will not swim as a team but as rivals in the week ahead. Prepare for a week in which the British record book is torn to shreds. The London 2012 games have already begun.

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