Jacco Verhaeren, Dutch performance director and personal coach to Marleen Veldhuis has described the double world-record setter as "always motivated to work hard and a very positive mind ... she accepts every challenge." 

After setting world records for 50m butterfly (25.33) and 50m freestyle (23.96) in the same session last Sunday, Veldhuis is now looking at five potential title swims at world championships in Rome in July. The decision is not yet made, however. "I will discuss with Marleen the programme for worlds next week," Verhaeren told SwimNews. "Seems
 she can swim all four events (50 and100 'fly and free) and, of course, the 4x100m 
freestyle. What we need to think about is the combination of 50 'fly and 100 free
 because this might be to close together."

Veldhuis, 30 this year, had been building up to Sunday's blast for quite some time after a late start in the sport. Asked about the season's pathway to those two world records, Verhaeren explained: "We started training in the last week of September and trained endurance in October/November. December we used as a specific training period, with three competitions in a row: Swim Cup Eindhoven; European short course; Dutch Nationals. The idea was to get better every meet and this worked out very well. After this we had two weeks break and started again in the first week of January. Again, we spent a lot of time working on endurance, and [the programme got] more specific in the end of March, followed by a taper."

There will be no experiments before Rome. "Now we have a week off [before beginning] a look-a-like programme [repeating] January to April from now to the world championships," said Verhaeren.

Were there improvements yet to be made? "Since I started to work with her (September 2006), we have spent a lot of time working on technique and endurance," said the coach. "The technique has stabilised (although it stays a big item in our practice) and in the last two years she gained a lot in endurance. Before the Olympics it was hard for her to do the heavy endurance sets without losing the proper technique or to have the right training adaptation. She's a professional swimmer since 2002 so for a 29 old that's a late start for a career. She was a swimmer and water polo player before this career so the focus and amount of training was totally different. 

"We needed the time to build up every item (technically and physically), which for lots of swimmers starts at a young age. Now, in the end, especially her races (tactics), she improved by [paying attention to]  her splits, stroke rates and stroke lengths. Improving her 100 free and 'fly will mean more improvement in endurance and in holding/improving her technique. Not very different to what we did untill now but on a higher level."

What set her apart and was she good to work with? "She's a great person and athlete to work with," said Verhaeren. "Always motivated to work hard and a very positive mind. I think it's the dream of every coach to work with such a dedicated athlete who is a great person at the same time. She loves changes in training so for me as a coach I  can be very creative in sets and planning. And this is why I love my job. She accepts every challenge. Marleen started later with her career than many other swimmers but we see now this doesn't have to be a big deal."