Swimming: Thorpe copes calmly with pressure

All eyes will be on one man later this week as the teenaged Australian sensation Ian Thorpe arrives in Manchester chasing yet another medals haul. The man dubbed "the Thorpedo" is a national hero, a living legend, and arguably the only man in the pool to rival the achievements of the great Mark Spitz.

The weight of expectation on the shoulders of the 19-year-old from Sydney is phenomenal, but with his immense inner calm and his unflappable character few doubt he can handle it. "Pressure is a distraction only if you want it to be," says Thorpe, who has his sights firmly set on defending his 200 metres and 400m freestyle titles, both in world record times.

The statistics speak for themselves. Australia's favourite son has broken 17 world records in an international career spanning just four years. He won the Jesse Owens award for the world's most outstanding athlete in 2001 and took a record-equalling eight gold medals in one World Championships. At the tender age of 15, when his years were the same as his shoe size, he became the youngest-ever men's world champion, and, to top it all off, he is the only three-times winner of the World Swimmer of the Year award.

But England expects, and with the backing of a vociferous home crowd, the hosts will be looking to make their mark with four top-seeded swimmers out to halt an Australian medal charge. The New Zealand-trained Zoë Baker stands almost a second clear of the field in the 50m breaststroke. She broke the short course world record three times in as many weeks back in January and with the retired South African Penny Heyns out of the picture, anything other than gold would be a disaster.

An incredible transformation in the career of Sarah Price sees her in pole position in the 100m and 200m backstroke. The 23-year-old became disillusioned with the sport after Britain's shambolic display at the Sydney Olympics but came out of retirement to rejoin her old club Barnet. Now under the tutelage of the ex-Army officer Rhys Gormley, she has returned with renewed self-confidence and an insatiable appetite to put an end to years of underachieving at major events.

England boasts the top two male breaststrokers in the Commonwealth in Darren Mew, of Bath, and Loughborough University's James Gibson. Gibson shattered two Commonwealth records in the Manchester pool back in April although Mew is only a fraction of a second slower.

Rebecca Cooke starts her first Commonwealth Games as favourite to take the 800m and 1500m freestyle titles after a promising season, although Australia will seldom relinquish their rule of the pool in the long distance events. A messianic home crowd gave Grant Hackett a hero's welcome at the Sydney Olympics when he finally defeated the mighty Kieren Perkins in the 1500m freestyle. Since then Hackett has never been headed and his world record stands 25 seconds ahead of his nearest rival. A gold medal in Manchester seems a certainty.

The Canadian-based sprinter Alison Sheppard represents Scotland's best chance of a swimming gold medal after setting a new Commonwealth 50m freestyle record of 24.96sec back in April, placing her half a second clear of the field.

The twice Commonwealth champion Mark Foster faces his toughest test yet as aboriginal giant Geoff Huegill comes to Manchester as the favourite to take the 50m and 100m butterfly titles. The South African Roland Schoeman will pose the greatest threat to Foster's defence of his 50m freestyle crown. At 22, Schoeman is 10 years Foster's junior and the fastest in the Commonwealth, as is the Australian backstroker Matt Welsh who is expected to take the 50m and 100m titles at the Aquatics Centre next week.