Australian swimmer Hackett's had a gutful of weight jibes

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett Wednesday insisted he was in the shape of his life and stripped off for the cameras to prove it after being angered by jibes about his weight.

The two-time Olympic 1500m champion posed in his swimming trunks to head off speculation about his physical conditioning after an unflattering photograph taken after a 10km qualification race in Seville, Spain.

The picture showed Hackett with a solid belly bulging over the top of his skin-tight swimming costume, prompting Sydney's Daily Telegraph to run the headline: "Has Hackett got the guts to race in Beijing."

"Do I look like I'm really that overweight? I don't think I am," Hackett, sporting a rippling six-pack, told media after a training session in...