St Joseph's Nudgee College

August 26, 2008

Nudgee College's head swim coach Matt Brown is returning from the Beijing Olympics the coach of a gold medalist, Emily Seebohm.

Ms Seebohm won gold as part of the women's 4 x 100m medley relay team.

The Brothers Swimming Club swimmer joined swim stars Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Trickett to win gold in a new world record time of 3:52.69.

The time is 3.05 seconds faster than the world record they set at last year's world championships in Melbourne.

Emily was first off the block in the relay and clocked a time of 59.33 seconds.

"It was great to finish on such a high note. I had a great time, it's so much fun to do it with your friends," Ms Seebohm said.

The win was a great end to what was a wonderful, but challenging, experience for both Matt and Emily.

"We left Brisbane at the end of July to spend a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur and the weather had been fairly cool at that time," Mr Brown said.

"We jumped from cool winter days straight into high humidity and days where the temperature hit around 33-34C. It left us all a bit tired but we got used to it."

Mr Brown, Ms Seebohm and the rest of his coaching group, consisting of Cate Campbell, Samantha Hamill and Felicity Galvez, arrived in Beijing on August 3 and were immediately caught up in a media swarm.

"Landing and getting through customs was not a huge deal but once we got out into the main stream there was a media frenzy," Mr Brown said.

"At the centre of it was Emily and Cate. About 30 cameramen and their sidekick reporters were rushing around the two girls asking questions as our media guys, Hanso and Dave Lyle, tried to get them on the bus."

"I think they enjoyed the experience even though it was a bit harrowing."