British diving chief Steve Foley believes his Athens-bound squad is the "best prepared" team of divers the country has ever fielded at an Olympic Games - including newcomer, Tracey Richardson, 21, of Southend swimming club.
"They started getting ready for these Olympics the day after the Sydney Games finished and now they're the best prepared British team there's ever been," said Foley, who was drafted-in as Britain's national performance director after the last Olympics.
"There's been some big changes since last time.
"I'm very excited about Athens and I think we'll do very well.
"We've been doing things with the divers we've never done before and their response has been excellent."
Britain left the Sydney Olympics empty-handed four years ago despite divers qualifying in three of the eight finals.
Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield came agonisingly close with fourth place in the 10m platform synchro event. And veteran springboard pairing Tony Ally and Mark Shipman were seventh.
Ally was the team's only individual finalist in the 3m event, finishing in 12th place.
But according to Foley four years have seen immense change in the attitude of the British divers.
"This time they're far more competitive," added the Australian.
"Every individual in this team is now more than capable of making a final and we've never had that before in Britain."
Published Friday August 6, 2004
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