'The Missile' finally accepts the nickname that fits

Australia's great Olympic swimming hope James Magnussen will not ditch his acts of verbal intimidation at the London Games after finally embracing his nickname "The Missile". Magnussen's manager said on Friday the 20-year-old would keep talking the talk before contesting the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle events in his Olympic debut. "These are confident athletes and they are brave enough to say what they think," Mark Jones told AFP. "There is nothing wrong with that. They are all trying to break each other physically but they're also trying to hammer each other mentally. "Psychology is a big part of it. The main thing is that you have to be good enough to walk the walk if you're going to talk it up. James's performances have obviously been very good and he has faith in his ability." Magnussen backed up his boasts with a freestyle sprint double in the year's fastest times to be the standout performer at Australia's Olympic trials, which finished on Thursday. He is their best hope of gold medals and will spearhead the squad in London as Australia attempt to retain a position among the world's top two swimming nations alongside the United States. Jones said Magnussen was "a bright guy with a good sense of humour" who understood what he needed to do to get an edge on his rivals. "He knows it is part of the game. In explosive events like sprints in the pool and at the track, you have people like Usain Bolt trying to get any advantage they can," he said. "They have an aura because everyone knows they are good enough to back up what they say. James won't be shy in London." Australia's head coach Leigh Nugent denied Magnussen's confidence could be interpreted as arrogance. "I really don't see arrogance in swimmers, so much," Nugent told reporters. "A guy like James, he just states the facts. "Every time he gets interviewed he has got something you want to listen to, and every time he swims he does something you want to see. "Maggie has brought a lot of attention and I think he's a wonderful character. He's prepared to talk it up a bit and I think that has been really good for our men." Nugent might call Magnussen "Maggie" but "The Missile" is the moniker most associated with the Olympic favourite. Jones said he believed an official from Swimming Australia was the first to coin the phrase. "James is from Port Macquarie so I think it started as 'The Port Macquarie Missile' in a press release from Swimming Australia," Jones said, referring to Magnussen's home town on the New South Wales north coast. "Ian Thorpe was always 'Thorpedo' and swimming tends to have nicknames like that for its best swimmers. The back-end of James's races are very powerful so the name did fit, and it has caught on. "He has become comfortable with it and understands it is good for headline writers and for attracting interest in the sport. He's seen stories written about him that don't even mention his name, stories where he's just called 'The Missile'." Magnussen has warned his rivals to "brace themselves" for London after clocking 47.10 seconds in the 100m at the trials and vowed to keep raising the benchmark.