HE RACED against Michael Phelps in the final of the 100m butterfly at this year's Beijing Olympics, but Ryan Pini started his career exactly where his new charges will this week at the Pacific School Games.
Pini swam in the Pacific School Games for Papua New Guinea in 1996 in Perth and this year after becoming the first swimmer from Papua New Guinea to make an Olympic final he's returning to the Games as head coach of the country's swim team.
''This is where I started, this was my first international competition, and it's going to be a really good meet for them,'' Pini said yesterday. ''It's a big learning curve for them but hopefully they enjoy it.''
Pini is Papua New Guinea's most successful athlete. He went to the Athens Olympics in 2004, before winning gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in the 100m butterfly. It was Papua New Guinea's first gold in any swimming event at that level.
This year when he made the Olympic final for the same event, he also became his country's first swimmer to do so.
So it's no surprise Pini is a local hero when he does go back to Papua New Guinea and 27 members of the swim team for the Pacific School Games were just a little excited when he signed on as head coach.
Pini was a late replacement a month ago when a friend of his couldn't make it, but the 27-year-old was happy to fill in.
''This isn't really my field, but I feel hopefully I have something to put in. I just like to make it fun for them,'' he said.
Pini's grandfather was a founding member of the Boroko swimming club in Papua New Guinea and 26 of the 27 swimmers on the team for the tournament in Canberra this week are based at the club.
There is even another Pini in the team, his niece Nicola, 11. The team includes 19 Australian passport-holders who live in Papua New Guinea with their parents, including 11-year-old Canberran Riley Albrecht.
Preparations were thrown out yesterday when a delayed flight from Papua New Guinea meant most of the team was left stranded in Brisbane while a handful trained at the AIS pool.
But the rest of the team planned a training session last night so that the team could try out the 50m pool.
In Papua New Guinea, the only operational pool is a 25m six-lane pool which has old-style small lanes so that when Pini trains for butterfly, he catches his hands on the lane ropes.
But thanks to Pini, swimming is reaching new heights. The country has sent swim teams to every Pacific School Games since its inception, but this year's is one of its biggest squads.
Pini now lives in Brisbane but said he never considered competing for any country than Papua New Guinea.
''I get a lot of enjoyment out of racing, but the enjoyment I get out of representing Papau New Guinea ... is just as much if not even more.''