The more Erik learned about swimming the more he was able to identify which muscle groups controlled the different movements in the various strokes. Once he had done this he devised weight training exercises to strengthen the muscles up.”De Bruin’s methods will come under further scrutiny in Seville, especially if Smith can recapture Olympic form. Two weeks ago in Belfast, swimming in the Irish National Championships, she set a time of 2min 08.1sec in the 200m butterfly, the second fastest in Europe this year But she still wasn’t happy. “I thought I should have swum better in Belfast but I didn’t have the change of gear in the second half of the race, which was very important to me in Atlanta,” Smith said last week. Yesterday she set a European short-course record of 2min 7.04sec for the event, swimming alone against the clock in Cork. Smith said yesterday she had entered six events in Spain, but is unlikely to swim them all, probably dropping the 400m and 800m freestyle.Before yesterday’s swim there had been an outside chance that she would miss the Europeans and concentrate on preparations for the World Championships in January in Perth, Australia. “It’s hard for her to peak now in August, and then let herself down before trying to peak again in January,” says Chalkie White, swimming correspondent of the Irish Independent.Smith has had a giddying time since she returned to a presidential welcome at Dublin Airport a year ago this week.

She has produced an autobiography, appeared regularly on Irish television and also increased her commercial sponsorship. But it hasn’t stopped her getting through two agents in an attempt to strike the right balance in her life between making money and swimming for further glory. Going back into the pool at Seville and succeeding will add a further chapter to her career, although for some people Michelle Smith can never win.. Apparently, the reason a Jasper, Justin Leonard’s nickname, rather than a Jesper, as in Parnevik, became the 126th Open champion was that there was a full moon over Royal Troon on that fateful Sunday last month. Parnevik can be affected at such moments unless he counteracts it in the right way, according to his coach Olaf Skipper.

So while Leonard went for an intergalactic jig, the Swede remained in geostationary orbit. Parnevik, who is known as “Mr Spaceman” on the US Tour, does not need much encouragement to let loose his loony side from Skipper, or “the one who ignites the fire”, as he likes to be titled. Skipper, 42, was a musician who worked with Parnevik’s comedian father, Bo, before taking up golf, turning professional and then evolving into the game’s wackiest coach, and that includes Mac O’Grady, who once had Seve Ballesteros burying his bad memories in the Arizona desert.
Skipper has had Parnevik trying to visualise shots by imagining peas in orbit falling into a hole and going up to elderly women golfers at home in Florida and telling them how good they looked. “He was acting very strangely and I never did understand the point he was trying to make,” Parnevik said.But he of the upturned cap cannot claim he is not also a little mad. “Yes, but then again I think everyone is slightly mad,” he admitted. When his second daughter was born earlier this year, the hospital needed to know a name for their forms.

Parnevik had not yet thought about it, but put his hand in his pocket, came out with a pen, and decided upon Penny.Parnevik meditates at the beach at sunrise, cleanses his system with lava sand, has had his blood magnetically analysed by Russians and believes in reincarnation “I’m sure Jesper was a king in a previous life. One day he will rule at golf,” Skipper said.And that’s the point, if slightly overstated. Parnevik has come close to winning three major championships, which is only one short of Colin Montgomerie’s record in this miserable department. His two Open losses in Ayrshire, at Turnberry in ‘94 and at Troon, are well known, but the Swede will arrive at Winged Foot in Westchester County for this year’s last major, the US PGA Championship, knowing he could have lifted the huge Wanamaker Trophy 12 months ago.As the major that most closely resembles a regular US tour event, the US PGA lived up to its reputation by presenting a play-off last year at Valhalla between Mark Brooks and Kenny Perry. Brooks won after Perry had spent all his time after completing his final round in a TV studio.