A "well prepared" US team was looking forward to the start of the Olympic swimming competition, team members said Wednesday.
Michael Phelps, who will be going for an unprecedented eight gold medals from five individual races and three relays, said he was looking forward to the competition, reported dpa.
Asked whether he thought that he could break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals, the 23-year-old said that he had never set out with that as a goal.
"I have never spoken about records. It is you guys in the media who have been writing about that. Only my coach Bob Bowman and myself know my goals and that is what I am hoping to achieve."
Bowman said that he was confident Phelps would perform well. "Michael is very well prepared for this competition."
The head coach of the women's team, Jack Bauerle, said that after the US trials earlier this year, they had changed their expectations because the team had performed so well.
"We would like to be better than we were in Athens four years ago and we were already pretty good there," he said.