As one of Estonia's elite swimmers, Triin Aljand was allowed to choose her coach for the Olympics.

For Aljand, there was only one answer. When the Texas A&M senior was asked if she wanted to bring along a coach to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, there was no option but to ask Steve Bultman, the A&M women's swimming coach of nine years.

"I never considered that he would say no," Aljand said. "He was excited."

Aljand gives much of the credit for her accomplishments over the past few years to Bultman.

"I just told them I want to have my coach with me," Aljand said. "I didn't really ask him. I just told him if he wanted to do it, he was going to be on the team."

For Aljand, it's a matter of feeling comfortable, which was something lacking when she attended the 2004 Games in Athens as a 19-year-old.

Aljand swam in her specialty, the 50-meter freestyle, but came away disappointed.

"I was young, but I wasn't that young, and I wanted to do so good and there was so much pressure that I kind of lost it," Aljand said. "So, I think I'll do much better this year. I was overwhelmed, but experience will change that."

So will having Bultman around during the competition and during training in Singapore before the Games.

"He will be there, too, otherwise I would be, like, two weeks without a coach. I'd be by myself and I've done that before, and I need my coach," Aljand said. "It's all the little things, and I feel like mentally the support [he gives], and when he's there I know I'm doing the right stuff. I trust him 100 percent."

Bultman, who graduated from LSU, was with Aljand last summer in Australia at the World Games.

He has experience coaching Olympians -- three from his club team in Florida competed in 1988 -- and he went to Beijing in 2001 for the World University Games.

"It happens, college coaches that coach international swimmers," Bultman said. "She's been training over here and improving over here and they felt like it was best. [If not], she would go and be working with somebody that wouldn't have any idea what she should be doing. They've seen her a couple of times, but not a lot."

Aljand has been an All-American in each of her three years at A&M and holds the school record in the 50-yard free with a 22.02 seconds. She's won six individual Big 12 titles and owns the Estonia national record in the 50 free and 100 fly.

"My times [are better], but mentally I'm so much stronger," Aljand said. "I'm ready to do this. Last time I was, 'Yeah, we'll see what will happen,' I guess, I don't know, doubting myself all the time."

That's where Bultman comes in.

Aljand qualified for the 50 free, 100 free and 100 butterfly months ago at meets in the United States. Estonia may also field a relay team, which Aljand would swim on if it doesn't get in the way of an individual event, depending on how Aljand advances through the preliminary rounds.

Both Aljand and Bultman believe she can make the semifinals and perhaps a final.

In the 50, that could mean running up against world record holder, Dara Torres, who at 41 was the hit of the U.S. trials along with Michael Phelps.

"I think it would be such an honor just to be in a heat with her, just compete against her. I'm not going to be thinking, 'Oh, she's 40 or something.' A race is a race," Aljand said. "I want to meet her. I've seen her, but haven't met her, and she is so fast and at 40, I want to hear her story."

NOTES: Bultman may also assist Martti Aljand in Beijing. Triin's younger brother is swimming the individual medley for Estonia. He will be a sophomore at California. Triin also has a sister, Berit, who swims for LSU. Berit did not gain a qualifying time in her specialty, backstroke, to make the Olympics. ... Bultman's been given the OK by Aljand to cheer for more than her while he's in Beijing. Three other A&M swimmers, Canada's Julia Wilkinson, Jamaica's Alia Atkinson and Christine Marshall of the United States will participate in the two-week event starting Friday. Other than in a relay, the only two who may swim in the same race are Aljand and Wilkinson in the 100 free. ... Like many of the swimmers, Aljand won't have the opportunity to enjoy the opening ceremonies because they are the night before her first event.