Swimming Australia Ltd has sought clarification from FINA as to whether Libby Trickett will be eligible to compete at trials in April next year to seek a place at the world titles in Shanghai in July 2011.

Although Trickett had of late believed that it would be possible to race for a place in Shanghai at trials in April, she is pragmatic about rules that rule her out until eight weeks or so after Australian trials and nationals in April 2011. Her original intention had been to return to international racing at world cups late in 2011.

Trickett told AAP: "Ultimately any opportunity that I get to race will be fun and if it's nine months before I race then I will have a good solid block of training under my belt. Competing in Europe is hardly a difficult life."

The domestic federation's move to seek clarification stems from a difference in the anti-doping rules of Australia and FINA/WADA. Aussie rules dictate a 6-month no-racing period but also bow to international rules in the case of elite athletes vying for international selection. And those international rules are clear: nine months must pass between a swimmer lodging papers with FINA to declare themselves a comeback swimmer after a period of retirement. Rule DC 5.5.2 states: "A competitor who has given notice of retirement to FINA may not resume competing unless he or she notifies FINA in writing at least nine months before he or she expects to return to competition and is available for out-of-competition testing at any time during the period before actual return to competition".

Competition is defined under general Rules as "championships, events and tournaments".

That rule has never been interpreted to mean that a swimmer may compete domestically at will in the nine-month period. The Australian trials serve as an official FINA qualification event, times set there used for the seeding of the world titles event. What Australia would require to have Trickett on the blocks in Shanghai is not a potentially damaging softening of FINA rules but a softening of its own selection policies: they could allow Trickett to qualify at Mare Nostrum in June, for example, but such a bending of selection rules is highly unlikely on a team that boasts an "all for one, one for all" culture that extends to the conditions under which swimmers race and prosper.

"I'm in FINA's hands at the moment," Trickett told AAP. "It's still up in the air if I can still swim at trials next year which obviously makes it difficult to qualify for worlds if I can't swim at the trials. Because of the level I got to FINA may elect to put me under FINA rules (as an international-class athlete) which would mean nine months and not six months which is the ASADA rules. It's quite complicated and it's one of those things where you lay your cards out and just hope for the best."

There is little complicated about FINA rules on this one, and Swimming Australia Ltd will doubtless know the FINA rule book like the back of its hand and would have been able to advise its swimmer the moment she said "I'm back".

A source here at the ASCA World Clinic for coaches in Indianapolis, welcoming Trickett's comeback, said that FINA should "apply rules that were written to protect the athlete" from those minded to cheat by bulking up and honing themselves on the quiet for a period of time before announcing a miraculous comeback to newfound form. Of course, most comeback swimmers intend to do what they always did: prepare and race fair and clean but anti-doping rules there to catch the few dictate that the many will be called on to commit to making themselves constantly available for out-of-competition testing.

Trickett has been open about her comeback and has not yet even started to train properly. A long road stretches ahead of her on the return-to-fitness trail, a journey she will travel in the full glare of control and public visibility.

Asked by AAP if she could get back to her best and go better, Trickett said: "I think anything is possible. I think I can get just as strong, just as fit and just as powerful, and hopefully I can continue to improve at the same time."

The London 2012 sprint free finals may well yet have a flavour of Beijing revisited (Sydney 2000 revisited for that matter): Britta Steffen is working towards a London 2012 defense after a down year, Trickett is back, Therese Alshammar has just sent her big-medal tally soaring again at Euro titles in Budapest, Dutch rumours were rife of late of a Inge de Bruijn swim rebirth - and Dara Torres is to be found looking fit and furious here in Indy, according to USA Swimming sources, supermom in town as a guest at a non-swimming sports function.