Silver strengthens Emily Seebohm's resolve Missy Franklin embraces Australia's Emily Seebohm after winning the gold medal in the 100m backstroke in Barcelona. LAST year a silver medal signified failure for Emily Seebohm. This year it signifies success. Between the London Olympics and the Barcelona world championships, Australia's best backstroker has gained a sense of perspective she believes will carry her to four Olympic Games, topping out in 2020. At 21, Seebohm has already been on the national team for seven years but she has taken inspiration from teammate Christian Sprenger, who at 27 finally won a major title this week. Seebohm has been on the fringe of big-time success since she made her national team debut at 14. She hopes it won't take another six years for her to make the next step, but even if it does, she vows that she won't give up. "I'll keep fighting as long as I can and keep going until my body says it can't go any more," she said. After her outpouring of grief when she fell short of the gold medal in London, she arrived home determined to change her life so one setback did not leave her so bereft again. She will no longer allow a shiny piece of metal to define her. "I've changed a lot of things from last year to this year and I've got some exciting things coming up and I've got a beautiful horse that I'm excited to see when I get home," she said. I feel like there's two sides to me (now). There's the really devoted swimming side that's so focused all the time, but then there's the other side which has fun and enjoys life and risks my life getting on a horse almost every day (much to coach Matt Brown's dismay). But I love it, I wouldn't know what I would do without it. It's given me a lot of motivation and a life back and an extra couple of years to keep going because I have that life outside swimming that's so enjoyable. So a bit more risk but a lot more balance? Yes, weirdly. That balance has been obvious in Barcelona, where a silver medal was a cause for celebration. "Seeing as I haven't been in the shape I was last year, I didn't really expect too much and that helped me, it made me feel happy to be up there and excited, and I enjoyed every moment of that," she said. Being up there on the podium and getting a silver medal is incredible and I wish that was a little bit important last year and that I enjoyed it a little bit more last year but I didn't, and that gave me the motivation to keep . . . pushing. The Olympic podium became the world championship podium as American Missy Franklin (58.42sec) beat Seebohm (59.06sec) and Japan's Aya Terakawa (59.23s). Seebohm said the three-month break she took after London had cost her a vital level of fitness. "We work really hard to get in the shape we were in at the Olympics and after the Olympics we just let loose and go a bit crazy and I'm not quite in that shape, but this is just motivation to keep me going, to get stronger and get better and get in that position that I want," she said. Maybe I'll stay in that second for a while and then do a sneak attack later on, which will be OK. Her nemesis over the past two years, American superstar Franklin is 18, three years younger than the Australian, but Seebohm still believes she can eventually find her measure. "Sometimes people peak when they are older and I'm going to push for that," she said. I'm learning more about myself every day and I'm sure she's learning but I'm going to keep that motivation and keep that drive. My goal is to get four Olympics and I'll be happy if I can get to that . . . and if I can pick up that gold medal along the way, I'll be pretty stoked. Ledecky and Denmark's Lotte Friis eyeballed each other through 28 laps of a thrilling duel before the American gained the winning edge, charging home to win in 15min 36.53sec, six seconds under compatriot Kate Ziegler's previous mark (15.42.54). Friis had the consolation of knowing she broke the world record by almost four seconds (15:38.88) in claiming silver. Lithuania's Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte fell just short of setting a second world record in 24 hours as she added the world title in 1:04.42, 0.07sec outside the new standard she established in the semi-final.