Alain Bernard: Speed demon in the water

Name: Alain Bernard

Country: France

Date of birth: 1983-05-01

Birthplace: Aubagne

Height: 196 cm , Weight: 90.0 kg

Discipline: 50m and 100m freestyle and relay

World records: 3 (50m and 100m freestyle - 23/03/2008)

World Championships: 1 medal - 1 bronze

4x100m freestyle relay: 3rd (2007)

European Championships: 3 medals - 2 gold, 1 bronze

50m freestyle: 1st (2008), 100m freestyle: 1st (2008), 4x100m freestyle relay: 3rd (2006)

European Short Course Championships: 7 medals - 2 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze

50m freestyle: 3rd (2007), 100m freestyle: 1st (2007), 3rd (2006), 4x50m freestyle relay: 1st (2004), 2nd (2005, 2006, 2007)

Four days of madness, three world records, two gold medals and one brand new pool sprint star lit up the European championships at Eindhoven 2008, making French colossus Alain Bernard favourite to win the Olympic 100m freestyle gold. As he had emerged from nowhere there was a thunderous round of doping allusions and his speedo trunks also came in for scrutiny.

In June 2007, he had already booked his tickets to Beijing at the French nationals where he registered the third fastest time ever (at that time) in both the 50m and the 100m: 21.76sec and 48.12sec.

Up until that point in the 50m pool, he had only won two bronze medals in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2006 Europeans and the 2007 worlds.

His progression, to be fair, had been hampered by two bouts of sickness: toxoplasmosis and glandular fever, which struck him down just ahead of the 2004 Athens Games.

But since then Bernard has piled on the beef, and its all muscle. He stands at 1.96m, weighs 86kg and has a reach of 2.05m to boot. He has fire in his belly and a huge dose of self confidence, all which combines to make him the boss of his particular business.

Shark skin

It also makes Bernard one of the big favourites for the 50m and 100m free Olympic gold on level pegging with Australia's Eamon Sullivan (who has retaken the 500m world record) or Italy's Filippo Magnini, double world champion at 100m.

He is also regarded ahead of Dutch icon Pieter van den Hoogenband, double Olympic champion at 100m, and whom Bernard stripped of the world record.

"Its crazy but it won't stop here. I want to be the best and stay the best for some time to come," he said after the 2008 Europeans.

Out in Eindhoven, on van den Hoogenband's doorstep, he beat the Dutch sprinter's world record in the semis with 47.60sec, smashing the 47.84 and again in the final the following day in the more than impressive 47.50sec.

Magnini was beside himself and told the press he felt Bernard had got his hands on the right vitamin pills, and was obliged to retract his statement and publicly apologise.

Bernard had the final word when he went on to set a third world record this time in the 50m and claim gold there too in a 21.50sec.

His records and the many others set by athletes wearing speedo LZR racer outfits sparked a raging debate on its buoyancy.

"I'd have won in pyjamas,' said Bernard, whose ever present winning smile hides a shark-like attitude in the pool.

The shark will be hoping its feeding time at the Beijing Games where the competition promises to be mouth-watering.