Australian 100m freestyle world champion James Magnussen aims to maintain his winning streak at this weekend's World Cup short-course meet in Berlin and build on his Barcelona success.
The world championships finished in the Spanish city last Sunday, but the World Cup series kicked off in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on Wednesday and Thursday before continuing in the German capital on Saturday and Sunday.
Having been beaten in the London 2012 Olympic final, Magnussen successfully defended his world 100m freestyle crown and backed it up with a World Cup victory in Eindhoven and aims to keep the wins ticking over in Berlin.
"I think it was a massive rebuilding phase for me over the last 12 months since the Olympics, so winning that race (the 100m final in Barcelona) meant a lot to me, not necessarily the time, but the result," said the 22-year-old.
"Following on from that in Eindhoven, that was another massive confidence boost to get my first international short-course win, so I'd ideally like to repeat that in Berlin."
In Eindhoven, Magnussen beat short-course world champion Vladimir Morozov on the wall in the 100m freestyle final, finishing just four hundredths of a second ahead of the Russian.
Magnussen is scheduled to race both the 50 and 100m freestyle this weekend, but said he will only swim the Eindhoven and Berlin legs of the World Cup series before heading back to Australia to take time off before training resumes in September ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The disappointment of finishing second in London fired Magnussen's determination to bounce back in Barcelona.
"A rugby league player can have a bad game and go out the next week to redeem themselves at a major event, whereas I had to wait 12 months for a second chance," he said of the period between the Olympics and Barcelona.
