Few people ever know how much pressure Olympic diving champion Tian Liang has to deal with behind his trade-mark shining smile.

With the Athens Olympic Games merely one month away, Chinese diving team's anchorman Tian feels pressure mounting on him.

"I think my mentality has changed a little bit after I won the Olympic and world titles because there are so much expectations from my fans and people I care," Tian said.

Making his Olympic debut with a fourth-place finish in Atlanta in 1996, Tian took the individual platform title four years later in Sydney where he also bagged a silver in the synchronized event with teammate Hu Jia.

He claimed two world titles from 1998 and 2001 World Swimming Championships before losing to Canadian Alexandre Despatie to settle for a bronze partly due to toe injury during the Barcelona Worlds last year.

"People have been used to my winning every event. They will be extremely disappointed if I lose," the 24-year-old Tian said.

"But I would rather be a challenger than be a defending champion," he added.

"I believe in his capability. He won't be dwarfed by any opponent because of one or two defeats and knows how to take control of himself," said Tian's coach Zhang Ting.

"As long as he can bring his ability to a full display, he will be the hardest diver to beat in the world," Zhang added.

After the loss at the Barcelona Worlds, Tian picked up new moves during the winter training camp and improved the total difficulty degree of his dives by 0.5 point compared with that at the Worlds, a big step for a diver at such high level.

His efforts paid off in the Athens World Cup in February this year as he won both the individual and synchronized golds before he clinched two individual titles and three synchronized golds in the FINA diving Grand Prix series.

"I am trying my best to put the pressure behind me and concentrate on my training. It's diving, a lot of diving now and little else," Tian said.

The Chinese diving team kicked off a six-week close-door training here until early next month.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2004)