Eurosport - Sat, 29 Aug 15:17:00 2009
Paralympic gold medalist Heather Frederiksen admits she is counting down the days until London 2012 and is convinced she can improve on her Beijing performance on home soil.
The 23-year-old is 100 metres backstroke Paralympic champion and also picked up two silvers and a bronze in the Far East.
In the three races that Frederiksen won silver or bronze, it was America's seven-time Paralympic gold medalist Jessica Long who took gold.
But Frederiksen has since added the 100m and 400m freestyle world records to the 100m backstroke mark she bagged in Beijing.
And with exactly three years until the start of the Paralympics, Frederiksen admits she is looking to upgrade her medals in three years time.
"It has already been 12 months since Beijing and the next three years will go so quickly, it'll be here before we know it," said Frederiksen. "It's what I think about when I get up in the morning and go to training - I want to improve on what I did in Beijing.
"There's a bit more pressure because more people know who I am. I'm better known among my rivals, like Jess Long, but it keeps me on my toes and it's a big motivator.
"I hope I have a lot of friends and family there in London and that will put extra pressure on - but it can only spur me on. I hope I will rise to the whole occasion and that it makes me perform to my best - when I saw all those people supporting me in Beijing it was the ultimate buzz.
"I know it's only really around the corner but it was the same in Beijing, it was always only ever around the corner, it won't feel real until they light the torch but I can't wait."
Frederiksen has been in superb form in 2009, capturing 100m backstroke gold at the BT Paralympic World Cup in May to add to her growing list of world records.
But with the European Championships in October and World Short Course Championships a month later, the 23-year-old is not resting on her laurels and insists there is more to come.
"When you are a world-record holder you establish yourself as the quickest and you are always going to get people who want to go faster than you," added Frederiksen.
"That's exactly the position I was in last year but I train as though I'm not a world record holder - I always try to go quicker and want a PB every time I swim.
"My training has its ups and its downs but I seem to have more positive sessions so I will be in great form come the end of the year.
"I'm knocking on the door of the 50m freestyle world record - I keep just missing it and am 0.7 seconds away at the moment.
"I'm hoping to have a good go at that at the Europeans. It's going to be tough and the world-record holder Cecilie Drabsch Norland is going to be there but I'm confident I can give it a good go."
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