Aussie swimming's golden couple split just before Games

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Australian swimming's glamour couple, Stephanie Rice and Eamon Sullivan, has split up just before the Olympic Games but insist their preparations have not been affected.

Sullivan is the 50m freestyle world record holder and Rice set world marks in the 200m and 400m individual medley earlier this year, although the latter has since been eclipsed.

Both are considered hot medal contenders in Beijing.

"It was a mutual decision. We decided to take a break to allow us to focus entirely on the Olympics," Sullivan said Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur where the Australian team is training and acclimatising.

"If it was going to distract us in any way then we wouldn't have made that decision. We're still friends and I don't regret anything that I...