Alena Popchanka has competed in three Olympic Games and won a World title for Belarus. This year, she captured a relay medal for France at the World Championships in Melbourne. Since 2005, she has been training in Scotland as a member of the City of Edinburgh squad.
 
How do you explain this cosmopolitan mix? Well, the 27-year-old hails from Gomel in Belarus, then moved to France in 2002, where she met and fell in love with Fred Vergnoux.
 
It was just over two years ago that Fred took up the appointment as Head Coach at the City of Edinburgh Swimming; three weeks into the job he married Alena at a ceremony in Paris.
 
Next year, she aims to make a fourth Olympic Games - this time in French colours - and next week the countdown to Beijing continues when she competes for City of Edinburgh in the Mare Nostrum Series in Canet in France. Talk about variety being the spice of life…
 
"I started swimming when I was picked out at the age of nine to attend a special sports school in Belarus," explained Alena, who is still struggling to learn English. "I did dancing and gymnastics but then started to concentrate on swimming.
 
"I went to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta as part of the relay squad and then managed to make a semi-final in Sydney. But the big highlight was in 2003 when I won gold in the 200m freestyle at the world championships in Barcelona.
 
"The reason I moved to France was because I felt I needed a change in training style. There was more variety."
 
Little did she know that the move would have such significance on her life. Fred was her coach, but soon became her friend and partner, and she made the decision to switch nationality.
 
Perhaps understandably, Belarus did not want to lose their world champion. She competed for Belarus at the 2004 Olympics (reaching finals in freestyle and the butterfly) in Athens before pressing ahead with the defection.
 
"There was a lot of pressure from Belarus," said Fred, who helps Alena out with her English. "There is a rule that says you must have 12 months out of international competition in order to switch country - but usually the rule is waived. But Belarus insisted she paid the full penalty."
 
It meant she missed the chance to defend the world championship in Montreal in 2005. The silver lining was that she had a long rest that helped recharge the batteries.
 
Now, along with Fred's support, she is fully focused on making a remarkable fourth Olympics. After Beijing, they hope to start a family.
 
The arrival of such a high profile swimmer has undoubtedly benefited her new Scottish clubmates that include world championships silver medallist, Kirsty Balfour, while Alena has savoured the challenge of training in country number three.
 
"I think the Scottish swimmers in general have it tough because of the lack of 50 metre pools," she says. "Edinburgh is lucky to have the Commonwealth Pool. But, in France, there were far more pools and better training times.
 
"It is also a completely different funding system. I am supported by my club in Paris - Clichy - while the Scots get money through bigger agencies."
 
This month, Alena heads to Canet in France with nine Edinburgh colleagues - Balfour, Robyn Matthews, Megan Gilchrist, David Leith, John Owen, Rob Lang, Michael Jamieson, Gregor Tait and Kris Gilchrist - for the first leg of the Mare Nostrum from June 9-10.
 
But, even already, everything is geared towards Beijing, a fourth Games and, hopefully, a first Olympic medal to set alongside her already heady list of achievements.

EB

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