In a move she hopes will bring more balance to her life, Leisel Jones has elected to leave long-time coach Ken Wood in Brisbane to train with Stephan Widmer, coach of former 100m freestyle world record holder Libby Lenton.

Jones burst onto the scene just before the Sydney Olympics in 2000 at the tender age of 16, emerging with a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke. Her best year yet came in 2003, when she broke the world record in the semifinals of the 100m breaststroke at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona. In finals, China's Xuejuan Luo was unrelenting and set a pace that left Jones scrambling for silver. In the 200m breast at the same meet, Jones went out well ahead of world record pace, only to have Amanda Beard reel her in over the last 50.

Prior to Athens, Jones did the unthinkable, breaking the world record in the 200m breaststroke at a small regional meet while still in heavy training. Jones, her coach, and Australian Swimming expected big things from the swimmer they dubbed "Lethal Leisel", who was riding high on newfound confidence in her abilities.

Unfortunately, times on paper do not always translate to wins when it counts. In the 100m breaststroke, Jones once again felt the wrath of Luo, who was swimming in an outside lane, and was even pipped by her teammate Brooke Hanson, relegating her to bronze. Faltering under the bright Olympic spotlight, Jones swam to silver in the 200m breaststroke behind Amanda Beard of the United States. Though it was her second-fastest time ever, Jones knew that her best time from an untapered meet in July would have won her Olympic gold by nearly half a second.

Despite her teammate having swam a faster 100m breaststroke time in the Olympic final, the head coaches of the Aussie team in a show of confidence, awarded Jones with the coveted relay spot in the 4x100 medley. Leisel responded by turning in the 5th fastest breaststroke split in history, helping to secure Australia the gold medal, and the world record.

After her performances in Athens, some Australian coaches had feared she would quit the sport, citing the intense media scrutiny of the swim team and their performances. It's clear after today's announcement that since the Olympics, Jones has done some soul searching in making this decision, although she made it clear to Australia's Herald Sun newspaper that her choice has nothing to do with her performance at the Olympics, and is not any sort of strike at her coach.

"It was a heartbreaking decision to tell him. Ken has supported me when most people really doubted me and didn't believe in me. The decision is nothing to do with Ken. It's just personally getting a bit of balance in my life.", she said to the Herald Sun.

Like a good majority of Australia's elite swimmers, Jones will start her competition schedule for the upcoming season at the Melbourne World Cup later this month.