Whenever he's struggling during a massive training block or short on motivation, there's one thing that keeps Canberra backstroker Ben Treffers going.
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It's the thought of hunting down 100m world champion Mitch Larkin and getting himself on the plane to the Rio Olympic Games next year.
Treffers and Larkin will resume their friendly rivalry at the Australian Shortcourse Championships in Sydney on Thursday night.
Since the 50m backstroke – the event Treffers won a bronze medal in at this year's world titles – isn't on the Olympic Games program, the 100m is the only way for the 24-year-old to qualify for Rio.
To do that, he will have to finish in the top two at next year's national titles in April and inside the qualifying time.
His best chance to do that is to use Larkin as a pace marker.
Larkin proved he is the one to beat after completing the 100/200m backstroke double at the world championships.
"I've tried to instil that kind of mindset that he's out there and I've got to try and beat him, because he's the pinnacle," Treffers said.
"That's pushing me along and helping me through those hard sessions knowing I've got Mitch to catch.
"It's a bit of a different mindset to the past in that I've tried to protect a spot, but this time I'm looking to going out and chasing that spot.
"If I can get there, it'd be great.
"If not, I've got other things in the pipeline, but I'm confident that it's possible."
Spots at the world shortcourse championships are on the line this week.
But for Treffers, that is a secondary focus compared to his main goal of qualifying for the Olympics.
"We've just finished a four week training block and this is our recovery week," Treffers said.
"I'm not sure how I'll swim based that we're in our adaptation.
"I'm just going to have a crack and it's more about trialling things than expecting an amazing performance."
Treffers has been working on improving his turns and pushing off on the wall as he builds on the momentum from winning bronze at the world championships this year.
"That's not lost on me, but I definitely feel I've got lots of improvement to make, especially in my 100 back," he said.
"Given it's an Olympic year, there's only the 100 at the Olympics, so I've got to plenty of work to do.
"I want to make a jump in that 100 back."
