Grant’s big comeback to the pool

Grant Hackett is making a comeback to competitive swimming. Picture: Luke Marsden Source: News Corp Australia

OLYMPIC swimming champion Grant Hackett will race at next year's national titles, moving one step closer to one of the most remarkable comebacks in Australian sport.

Eight months after leaving a US rehab facility where he battled his stilnox addiction, 34-year-old Hackett has revealed a stunning leaner and stronger physique than at any stage of his brilliant career.

After throwing in his high-pressure job at Westpac, he has left Sydney and is back living on the Gold Coast, surrounded by family and friends.

He is training with his good mate, ironman Ky Hurst and has invested in a booming Brisbane funds management business.

And he is back in the pool, swimming six days a week under his old coach Denis Cotterell and helping mentor Australia's new generation of distance swimming stars.

A ripped Grant Hackett today. Source: News Corp Australia

Grant Hackett in 2008. Source: Supplied

But after seeing the failed comeback of former rival Ian Thorpe, Hackett will not commit to the "fantasy" of his return. Hackett reapplied to the ASADA drug testing pool last September.

WADA code changes from January 1 will clear him to compete at the trials in April, and he has a passion for the sport and zest for life he has not tasted in a decade.

"I probably haven't felt this good since 2003 and 2004," Hackett said.

"This year I've just really got my passion back for it. I do set myself little goals and little times and I'm trying to ­improve, that's just the sort of person I am.

"Where it's going to lead I really don't know. My only ambition at this stage is to do a club relay with the boys.''

Getting his life back in shape is a victory in itself, but there is undoubted romance in the notion that Hackett might don a gold cap for Australia in the pool again.

Grant Hackett is back in full training to get back to competitive swimming. Picture: Luke Marsden Source: News Corp Australia

Hackett, though, believes it is fanciful and disrespectful to suggest he could conquer a comeback if the man he could not beat in his prime failed two years ago.

"(Ian) didn't make comebacks look overly attractive, it was probably more of a ­deterrent," Hackett said.

"That is probably why I'm more reserved and more humble because of watching that. At the age of 34, which is extremely old for swimming particularly after six years off, it becomes a challenge for me in my own mind of 'how fast can you go at this age?'

"The most interesting thing is my body can still ­handle doing a fair bit of work which is great, that is why I think I've been able to get fit relatively quick.''

So what happens if through his quiet training, Hackett suddenly has a time capable of relay selection on the Australian team?

"If I give you an honest ­answer, the scenario you just painted, you would never say never in that case," the former champion said.

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