It’s rare that swimmer Emma Harvey now goes more than a few weeks without breaking a record.

After setting a new mark in the 100 metres backstroke at the Pan American Games in Chile in October, Harvey took the 50 metres freestyle record off Madelyn Moore at the Toyota US Open in California in December, while just last week she became the first Bermudian woman to go under 56 seconds when breaking Moore’s record in the 100 freestyle at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Not content with that, she also lowered her own national records in the 100 butterfly, becoming the first Bermuda swimmer to go under a minute, and the 100 backstroke but it’s fair to say those fast times came as something of a surprise.

“I was maybe expecting to get those drops in time later in the season so to get them now I’m really excited about it and it gets me excited for the future,” Harvey said.

“It’s pretty unusual at this age to set lifetime bests, some by almost a second, in multiple events at the same meet. Between the ages of 16 to 20 I really struggled a lot and on paper it did not look like I was making many strides forward.

“I think those learning experiences I had back then has set me up now. I’m almost catching up with some of the performances that I maybe expected when I was a bit younger. I’m really excited for sure.”

This is shaping up to be a big year for Harvey with Olympic qualification at her fingertips. The 23-year-old is just 0.2sec off achieving the required standard in the 100 back, 0.23sec away from qualifying in the 100 butterfly and 0.26 from securing a spot in the 50 metres freestyle.

“The qualifying period ends in June, so I just have to swim any one of those times and then have the highest World Aquatics points at the end of the qualifying window,” Harvey said.

“I still have a good few more months to get there, which is why I’m so excited to be at this point now. There is a lot more refinement now that will be going into each one of those races and I’m just hoping that with a little bit of extra work on the details and a little bit of extra rest I can get there pretty soon.

“It actually takes a bit of the pressure off knowing that I’m so close. Mentally it’s a bit harder to go into the back half of the season thinking I have to take a whole second off to get to my goal. Even in your heart if you know you are very capable of that, it’s still more daunting.

“Despite not having the actual time yet, I still feel it’s so close that I just need one more great swim and I’ll be there. That makes it a lot more mentally easier and I’m excited rather than nervous. Going into a meet when you are really nervous because you know you have to smash a lifetime best, that puts a lot of pressure on you. Now I feel a lot more relaxed and excited to race again as I believe I can do it.”

Harvey’s best chances of bursting into the Paris picture may well come at the World Championships, which takes place in Doha, Qatar, in less than a month, and she is preparing to tweak her training in the build-up to the big meet.

“For three weeks leading up to the event the focus will be very much with the world championships in mind, so there will just be more focus on race preparation and pace work, more focused.

“I’ll be swimming the 100 back, 50 free, 50 back and 50 fly, which is a slightly different event line-up for me, so I’ll likely be focusing more on the backstroke events just because I am swimming two of them.

“But I feel pretty good with where my training is at right now, so I don’t necessarily feel like I will need to make a huge adjustment, but when there is just 0.2sec in it the little details matter and it all adds up. I’m excited to see where I am in a month.”

Harvey is full of optimism heading into the World Championships but with most swimmers preparing for the Olympics, the standard could well be higher than in Japan last year.

“I would love to make a semi-final and this world championships will be very interesting as it is an Olympic year, so a lot of teams are sending different squads than they normally would,” Harvey said.

“Instead of sending 20 people some teams are sending ten because they are only sending people who have already qualified for the Olympics or have a really good shot of qualifying. It’s going to look very different this year so it’s hard to tell what the standard will be.

“I learnt a lot in Japan last year and with how I am feeling now, I am going in with a lot more experience and confidence and just hoping to improve on my performances.

“I’d obviously love to get the Olympic cut but focusing too much on time can lead you astray so I’m going to race my heart out and hope for the best.”