The 32-year-old, who has won a total of 11 medals in his four appearances in the Paralympics, has been in fantastic form recently and was one of the stars at the recent 2010 BT Paralympic World in Manchester where he stormed to victory in the SM6 200 metres individual medley in front of an ecstatic home crowd.

The German-born athlete, who has cerebral palsy affecting the right side of his body, also holds five world records in the sport and is undoubtedly one of the greatest Paralympic swimmers of all time.

Kindred has competed at every IPC Swimming World Championships since they were inaugurated in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1998 and has medaled in all of them.

Kindred is excited to be heading to his fourth World Championships, which are due to begin on August 16 at the impressive Pieter van den Hoogenband swimming stadium, but revealed he will be using the event as a warm up for the London 2012 Paralympics which he claimed will be the biggest event in his long and distinguished career.

Kindred told insideworldparasport: "At this stage in my career, I am obviously one of the senior members in the team having competed in every single World Championships since they began in New Zealand 1998.

"But I am training as well as I ever have at the moment and I am pleased with my form heading into Eindhoven.

"However, I’m not going to Eindhoven with any great expectations.

"I hope to do well at the World Championships and it would be great to medal there but if the worst case scenario happens, and I don’t, then it is no big problem as I am really just focused on building towards London 2012 at this stage.

"Eindhoven will be a great opportunity to race against some of the best guys in the world but for me, everything I do now is part of a four year cycle towards London 2012 and I feel I am on the right track for the Games.

"London 2012 will be the most important event I have competed in and even though I am experienced, I am so excited about competing in 2012 in front of a home crowd.

"I hope that the stadium is pact full of screaming fans as that will hopefully inspire me and the rest of the team to medals.

"Eindhoven is an important step to London 2012 and I am sure I will be the one that all my competitors are looking to beat but I would gladly finish last in Eindhoven if it meant gold in 2012 which really would be the highlight of my career."

Kindred admitted that there will be a huge amount of pressure on him to perform in 2012 as well as some of the other stars of the team, such as Ellie Simmonds and Dave Roberts, but urged that the squad embrace that pressure and use it to their advantage.

He said: "There will obviously be a huge amount of pressure on us to do well at London 2012, especially on some of the bigger names who have won Paralympic medals in the past, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Pressure comes from mostly from the media so the more pressure that is on us, the more media coverage Paralympic sport will be receiving so it is kind of a double-edged sword.

"We must just embrace that pressure and use it to inform more people across the country about the Paralympics and get more people interested in it and there is no better opportunity to do that than at London in 2012."

Kindred, who is also an ambassador for the Youth Sport Trust, added that one of the main reason he is so delighted that London will be hosting the 2012 Games is because of the sporting legacy the event will provide for children across the country.

He said: "London 2012 will inspire children across the UK to take up more sport after the Games and what is more; we will have brand new facilities that they can use after the Games, such as the magnificent Aquatics Centre in Stratford.

"I am very proud to be an ambassador for the Youth Sport Trust because sport has given me so much and it is so rewarding to give something back and help young children get into sport who could potentially be the stars of the future.

"We will never have a better chance to get children into sport than we have now with the Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to London so it is crucial that we do as much as we can right now to ensure that the legacy opportunities from the Games are not wasted."

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