For the third consecutive Olympiad, Auburn’s Brett Hawke will spend his summer in the heat of the competition at the Olympic Games.

This time, however, Hawke will make the transition from athlete to coach.

Following the completion of the Olympic Trials, the Brazilian Swimming Federation made the decision to add Hawke, a second-year assistant coach at Auburn, to its Olympic coaching staff.

“It is pretty crazy to think that I have only been coaching for two years and now I’m making my way to the Olympic Games,” said Hawke. “It has been a whirlwind, everything has happened to fast and I am still trying to grasp the concept of heading to the Olympics as a coach.”

Hawke competed in 2000 and 2004 in the sprint freestyle events for his native country, Australia. Following his retirement from competitive swimming, Hawke made the decision to return to Auburn and has since focused on coaching Auburn’s sprinters, among them Brazilian swimming star Cesar Cielo.

“Cesar put in a request for me to be one of the coaches on the team and the Olympic committee made the decision,” said Hawke. “They only picked four coaches, so it is pretty amazing to get selected in the end.”

Leading the Brazilian team alongside Cielo, a two-time NCAA Swimmer of the Year, is Thiago Pereira. Cielo and Pereira competed together for Brazil at the 2007 Pan American Games, combining to win nine gold medals at the meet.

Hawke’s main area of emphasis in working with the team will be with the sprinting core, a group that includes Cielo, and the sprint relay teams. Training for the Summer Games begins July 23 as the team and coaching staff head to Macau, China for the team training camp.

By his selection to the Brazilian coaching staff, Hawke becomes the fifth Auburn coach to make his way to the Olympics. Former head coach David Marsh was the first as he was named to the United States staff in 1996 and 2000. He was followed by a trio of members of his staff in 2004 as Jeff Shaffer was an assistant with the U.S. diving team, former
women’s co-head coach Kim Brackin served as the head coach of Zimbabwe and former assistant coach Dave Durden worked as the head coach for Panama.

For Hawke, he says returning to the Olympics in 2008 will be a very different feeling.

“It is a very strange feeling,” said Hawke. “I suited up in Australian colors the last two times, they are the same colors (green, blue and yellow), it just says ‘Brazil’ on the back now instead of ‘Australia.’ But, I’m fighting 100% for them, I want to win gold medals, I want Cesar to win and I’m totally dedicated.”