Stephanie Rice says losing her 400m medley world record to American Katie Hoff this week has stirred up her competitive juices before next month's Olympic Games.
The Queensland glamour said Hoff clipping a third of a second off her world mark at the US trials was just the spur she needed before Beijing.
"Yeah definitely, it really motivated me seeing her swim the other night and to be honest it was just what I needed these last three weeks," she said.
"It is something to push me on a lot further."
The 200m IM world record holder shook off a back problem to comfortably win her 400m IM heat in 4minutes 42.01 seconds at a grand prix meet in Sydney tonight.
She said she felt sore after her swim but blamed herself for letting the problem flare up.
"I did not book a massage session in and that was a little bit slack on my behalf," she said.
"But I have definitely done a lot of hard training, so I think it is all contributing."
She had no doubts about what it would take to down Hoff in Beijing.
"It is definitely going to take a world record and it is really going to come down to a great race in the end," she said.
With Eamon Sullivan resting his back, Ashley Callus (22.01s) won a 50m freestyle race in a personal best time.
