Nick Thoman has been swimming year-round since he was 4 years old, but the 2004 Mariemont High School graduate is starting to make a name for himself on the national and international levels.

"I'm just starting to come around as a swimmer," Thoman said. "I'm just coming into my own. The training that I've been doing and where I've been training have really helped my swimming."

Thoman, 23, is tuning up for the Duel in the Pool in Manchester, England, that runs Friday and Saturday, capping what has been a very good year for the swimmer.

Thoman went 45.60 for a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke event Dec. 5 at the AT&T Short Course National Championship meet in Seattle and added a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:40.72.

Thoman, who is coached by David Marsh of Swim Mac Carolina, swam a near-world-record time of 49.68 in the 100-meter short-course event earlier this year in Italy and ended the summer long-course season ranked fifth in the world and second in the U.S. in the 100 back and sixth in the world in the 200 back.

Thoman comes from a family of swimmers on his father, Henry Thoman's side.

"My grandfather, Richard Thoman, actually held a world record in the 1950s (in the 100 backstroke)," Nick Thoman said. "He held the world record in one of the events I'll be swimming in over in Manchester."

Following in his family's backstrokes has been no easy task.

"I have either nine or 10 practices a week that I go to and I lift (weights) three times a week and I do dry land six days a week also," Nick Thoman said. "Dry land is just core conditioning classes outside of the pool, doing pushups and pullups and squats and stuff. Eat healthy, train hard, sleep hard. That's basically it."

The ultimate goal of all that training is the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

"That is the end goal," Nick Thoman said. "We've got a couple of years left, but this is a good step along the way."

The late Richard Thoman, though one of the best backstrokers in the world in 1952, missed his chance to swim in the Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, that year.

"In 1952, my father was very, very sick during the Olympic trials, so he did not swim his best and did not make the Olympic team," Henry Thoman said. "It's just bad timing. He was unlucky. But he was at that point one of the best backstrokers in the world."

Nick is looking forward to his chance.

"To compete in the Olympics, I will need to keep training at a very high caliber for the next two years and just keep competing at a high level and just basically get more international experience and that will help me in all aspects," Nick Thoman said.

He will gain more international experience starting Friday when he and his American teammates take on a team of European stars at the Duel in the Pool.

"This is a pretty big event," Nick Thoman said. "It's not the biggest meet of the year, but it's not a small meet. It's a pretty big honor to be named to the team."

After a national championship last week, it is a chance to take on the world.

"I've been on the national stage for a couple years now," Nick Thoman said. "I've been getting top eight at nationals for the last several years. I've been to the World University Games before, which is an international caliber meet. However, I really haven't traveled much internationally and swum much internationally before." It is another stop on the road to the 2012 Games.

"I think it is a good possibility," Henry Thoman said. "Right now in the U.S. he is the No. 2 backstroker in the 100-yard long-course event. Based on his times right now, he has a very good shot."