The swimmer

LEE KELLEHER's teenage years are charted out in front of her with peaks and troughs and the possibilities of summit conquering highs. With the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney the goal, her career has barely begun. Yet those who study Irish swimming closely look into the distance and on the horizon they see Kelleher.

An Irish father and Filipino mother have ensured that the Irish girl will always look exotic around an Irish squad. Her physical appearance is striking and with a precocious 5'9" high frame and an ability to cut through the water faster than Michelle Smith could when she was the same age, Kelleher has already nourished expectations for the next decade.

"She's doing 63 seconds for the 100 metres butterfly right now, says her English coach Paul Howe, himself a bronze medallist in the Los Angeles Olympic Games. "This year to make the Olympic final you had to make 60 seconds. She's only three seconds off making an Olympic final mark."

In 1993, a 24 year old Smith was timed at 1:04.18 for the 100 butterfly, over a second slower than what the teenager is now able to swim in her strongest stroke.

Last year Kelleher collected 12, gold medals in the Irish National Championships - six senior and six junior titles in the butterfly, backstroke and individual medley. She, was placed fifth in both the 100 and 200 butterfly in the European Junior Championships in Copenhagen last August and because of her age she is eligible to compete in the same Championships in Glasgow this summer and again next year.

"No the training isn't boring. It's quite interesting, actually," she says.

For a 14 year old, Kelleher is mature beyond her years. With such self assurance and a natural confidence, she could pass for an 18 year old. Easily. Her critical faculties and life experience are both arresting and unusual for an adolescent. Articulate and with a clear sense of what she is at - and what she has to do to achieve it - Kelleher's characteristics combine to make a formidable personality.

"She is the most determined girl I have seen for a long time. She'll turn up for every training session. She'll get in early to get more done and she's determined that in each set she'll lead the lane and do the best times within each set," says Howe.

A lot of people training with her within the squad find it difficult because they can't overtake her. As soon as they start to get past she speeds up. She's very competitive and determined in whatever she does.

"You have to be competitive," Kelleher says. "I mean that's what it's about, isn't it? To be a competitive swimmer, you have to be. . . well, competitive."

Having attended French school in Africa and an international school in Maputo in Mozambique, where she learned to speak fluent Portuguese, Kelleher finally arrived at St Peter's Community School in Passage West Cork.

Affiliated to City of Cork Swimming Club at the Matt Talbot Pool, her father Kieran, along with Neil Coffey and Tom Cross, coach Kelleher when she is in Ireland. Now at school in Millfield, Somerset, England, she trains in the school's Olympic sized 50 metre pool, only one of seven in Britain.

Standing on the pool deck Kelleher, taller by a head than her young colleagues and another female instructor, is one of the school's prized pupils among a young pack of five other nationally ranked swimmers. As a 13 year old, last year, she competed in Europe against swimmers who were a year older, which to Howe's mind is a marked achievement.

It wouldn't be significant if it, was just in England or Ireland where, people often move up age groups. But if you go to Europe and swim against Europe's best 14 year olds, that's significant. It does mean that you are potentially an excellent swimmer in that event.

She's very well built all round for a swimmer. Her technique is excellent. She's tall for her age and growing and she's strong with it. Together with the strength the backstroke requires and her strength and, height, she's got it all. With that she's still growing, so it's actually getting better as she gets older.

The school

WHEN Millfield, set in 120 acres of rural parkland, were refurbishing its old 25 metre pool they considered how they might afford a better swimming facility. An anonymous donor then stepped in and funded its construction. They now have one of the best Olympic 50 metre pools in the country.

Beside the pool, the school have laid a tartan athletics track which is, set into the ground of the surrounding undulating land. Opposite the track are the stables where the school keeps 20 horses and has room to house a further 30 animals for the pupils who have their own. The stables are set beside the cross country course which runs around the perimeter of the grounds.

If your child prefers golf, Millfield has a nine hole golf course and they will be opening a David Ledbetter school next September where PGA professionals can correct that swing before it becomes too comfortable. They also have a smaller pitch and putt area beside the cricket pitch and a 309 yard driving range.

The fee paying Comprehensive (£13,500 per year full board), also have a fencing salle, a Judo dojo, 18 outdoor tennis courts and a Nick Bolleteri tennis academy, which was opened last June. Bolleteri, who amongst others coached, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, came to the school for the official opening last summer before Wimbledon. The school is currently constructing an three court indoor tennis complex. They also have a shooting range and two major fully equipped sports' halls, as well as three Astroturf pitches.

Last year the school provided 26 pupils who represented England, Scotland and Wales in their age groups in 11 different sports. They turn out an average of 25 potential internationals every year. They have a sports staff of 130, many of whom are former international standard, athletes themselves.

Welsh rugby internationals Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams were both former pupils. So was 1980 Olympic gold medallist breaststroker Duncan Goodhew. The Queen's racehorse trainer Ian Balding went to the school, as did athlete Mary Rand, the British Olympic, gold medallist.

Sir James Goldsmith, the billionaire founder of the Referendum Party and father in law of cricketer Imran Kahn was a former pupil, as were the children of Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, and Pierce Brosnan. For security reasons the school prefers to withhold the names of current pupils, but when Boris Yeltsin's grandson, Boris, arrived even the 120 acres couldn't hide him from the press.

Rather uniquely, the school also has a fully equipped bar beside their, 600 seat theatre where the students take part in 40 public performances a year. However, they have to be outs of the bar by 10 p.m. says marketing, co ordinator Anne Heald. It teaches them to be responsible with alcohol," she adds.

Millfield's sports facilities are better than those of UCD, Ireland's largest, university. They have embraced sport like no other school in Ireland could ever dream of doing and they have married it with an impressive academic standard. Their percentage pass rate in A levels is 95.8 per cent. Almost 60 per cent of those achieve either A or B grades. There are things to learns from Millfield. Kelleher is finding that out.

The plan

LEE's father Kieran is a top masters swimmer. He wants his daughter to, be as good as she can be, as good as her talent, allows. For this year at least Millfield is the obvious choice.

"We've got a lot more pool time, obviously, because we've our own pool. So we're a lot fitter and set can be a lot longer. We also get more specialised training," she says.

"It's easier here. The school is really designed to work around sportspeople whereas at home the sport is designed to work around the school. Here they know what you re doing and they work around that."

She refuses to look further than the Junior Europeans in the summer and lets others worry about Sydney when she will be 17. Her coach believes now that she has the potential, to make an Olympic final.

"Her strength, which will come to most girls two or three years later, probably equivalent to the Strengths levels she's got now. She's actually quite gifted in having strength and technique. She's world class for her age in butterfly. Backstroke she's Irish record holder for her age and probably third or fourth fastest in England," says Howe.

To be quite honest, being 14 she'll probably grow another three or four inches and she'll be a lot stronger. If you take the last three years where she's improved at least one second every year, if she keeps at that going then she's already ranking in that Atlanta Olympic final. It would predict that she will be highly enough ranked within three years to get to the Olympics. How she does then will totally depend on how it goes on the day and how tough she, is, adds Howe.

That she is 14 and already shouldering significant pressure is a debate that will carry into the next decade. The achievement of Amanda Beard, the 14 year old who won gold for the US in Atlanta, suggests that youth is no barrier, but increasingly women are beginning to peak in their early 20s. The average age of the British team is 24.

The reality, though, is that the pressure is likely to increase. Howe is now preparing to have physiologists from Bath University look at, her muscle type and length and bone ratios to see what might be her optimum event. No point in slogging it out over distance when you've high twitch muscle. Then at least she will have more complete focus. But the pressure will increase.

"We expect these swimmers to get to Olympic level. Over the next three or seven years they are going to be under a lot more pressure that they are now. I think we do put them under pressure, but to actually get to stand on an Olympic podium or get to an Olympic final, if they haven't been through these pressures then they will crack at that time."

A second or so a year. Sounds very, little. There are no easy routes to Sydney, no cost effective way of getting there. Lenore Kelleher and her highly motivated father must navigate the next few years carefully, when her body will change shape, hopefully in a way that will enhance her swimming. There are no easy routes, but at least they know the direction they are going.