Harvard men's swimming Co-Captain Tim Ford didn't have to be taught to be a champion.

From a very early age, he lived with one.

For four years beginning at age eight, Ford often stayed with female swimmer Shane Gould in his native Australia.

"I would stay with her on weekends, because I lived 50 miles from the swimming facility," Ford recalls.

In 1972, during the period that Ford was occasionally Gould's boarder, the elder swimmer won three gold medals, a silver, and a bronze at the Munich Olympics.

"I learned a lot by staying with her," Ford says.

And while Ford was attending Turramura High School in Australia, just a few years after his stays with Gould, he became a several-time national champion.

Ford is obviously a good learner.

When Ford was participating in a meet in Japan, Harvard swimming Coach Joe Bernal approached him and encouraged him to apply to Harvard.

"I always wanted to come to America," Ford said. "It came down to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale but I felt Harvard had the best swim team and academics."

But Ford's transition to Harvard and to the New England weather was not as smooth as his decision to attend school in Cambridge.

"I was homesick and I had just come from the middle of the summer to the middle of winter," Ford said. "It's hard coming to a college during the middle of the [year]."

Ford also felt out-of-synch with the people and the routine of Harvard. But his association with the swim team enabled Ford to make the adjustment more easily.

But while the Eliot House resident found the Cambridge weather harsher than he was accustomed to, he found the training regime lighter. Back Down Under, Ford's daily practice consisted of swimming 18,000 to 20,000 meters in a 50-meter pool.

At Harvard, however, Ford's practices consist of swimming only 12,000 to 14,000 yards in a 25-yard pool.