Bangalore: Nisha Millet was India's flag bearer at the 2002 Olympic Games at Sydney, Australia. An honour achieved by very few, especially at the Olympic Games. Though Nisha failed to finish in the medal bracket in 2002, she has now resolved to do much better in the forthcoming Olympics at Athens in 2004.

Coming out of a surgery for a benign tumour 'Osteoid Osteoma' in the lower back region and a lay off of nearly two years, Nisha hopes to be back in full competition by the end of this year. Come December 14, the Indo-American Society at the US Consulate, Mumbai, will honour Nisha Millet with the "Young Achiever" award.

Indiainfo.com caught up with Nisha at the Basvanagudi Aquatic Centre's swimming pool for a freewheeling interview on her swimming career and future aspirations. "In this cricket-crazy country, I wish people get more behind other sports. I have seen some of my own teammates from this very pool skipping swimming sessions to watch cricket matches," she said in this candid interview.

"And when you don't swim for so long then you realise that you want to swim because of yourself and not for anybody else, not for medals, you just want to swim and do your best. So I think I'll swim much better when I get back, as I'm so much more motivated," she explained.

Excerpts of the exclusive interview:

Congratulations…your reaction on being nominated for the Indo-American Society's "Young Achiever" award.

Thanks a lot. I’m very, very thrilled actually, because it came as a surprise to me and it came at the best time and really motivated me because two months ago I underwent a back surgery. So, I’m just getting back into my swimming and this is a very tough time for me, physically and mentally. Something like this award motivates me to swim harder.

What was the nature of surgery, was it anything to do with swimming?

No, it was nothing to do with my swimming. It was a benign tumour called 'Osteoid Osteoma', which is common in younger adults. There is no reason why it comes, it is just a normal growth. I was having a lot of pain since the Sydney Olympics. I even swam the Olympics with that pain and many doctors couldn’t diagnose it, but I finally went to Coimbatore and Dr Rajsekaran – a spine surgeon – operated on me. He removed the tumour completely and this happened about two months ago and I'm already feeling one hundred per cent better and back to my swimming.

At this point of time, one Olympic Games, back surgery…, how do you assess your career?

Right now, I have graduated from concentrating on the national meets to trying to get into the international field. Winning five, six gold medals in the nationals isn't my goal right now. At the Olympics, it was very clear that I still have a lot of hard work to do. I'm still way behind compared to the Americans or the Australians, because they've very, very advanced training.

My coach Pradeep Kumar, who trains me in India at this pool in Basavanagudi, also admitted that I needed to have international exposure, international training and all the facilities that come with it. Hopefully, I would be going abroad and swim at least five to six meets every year with the best competition internationally. That would get me in good stead for international competitions.