MS OBSESSION
At 15, Nisha Millet was insane. When she got bored, she'd take the lift down from her 10th floor flat in Bangalore and run up the stairs. For fun. Nothing's changed. At an age when girls are discovering lipstick and Boyzone posters, she swims 6 km (120 lengths of a 50 m pool), runs for half an hour and lifts weights. And that's just in the morning. When you want to be India's best swimmer, ever, that's your life.

So is she good? Well, she won seven gold medals at the recent SAF Games, owns 10 junior national and seven senior records and is the first Indian woman to swim under a minute in the 100 m freestyle? Fast, huh? No, she says, "I'm not really a sprinter." She's better at holding speed over distance, her ebony, carved legs the reason why.

The only Indian this year to receive the $1,200 (Rs 51,600) a month Olympic scholarship, she's off to Phoenix, Arizona, next year to train under expert supervision. The 200 m freestyle qualifying time for the 2000 Sydney Olympics is 2.07, she's at 2.08; for the 400m it's 4.27, Nisha's at 4.29. So she's not going to win gold, but just getting there in today's world of Chinese swimmers with doorway-sized shoulders is a start. She isn't listening. It's time for another 120 lengths, you see.