A champion is always a champion... in everybody's heart...

Ian Thorpe's stories...

SYDNEY: Australia's greatest swimmer Ian Thorpe announced his retirement aged just 24 yesterday, passing up the chance to become the first man to win three swimming gold medals at three Olympics. The world and Olympic champion told a packed news conference broadcast live across Australia that he had decided to quit because swimming was no longer the most important thing in his life.


Ian Thorpe's decision to retire at the tender age of 24 was a bittersweet ending to the career of a swimmer who rose from a humble upbringing to become one of the world's most recognisable sportsmen. While the Australian achieved every imaginable success in the pool, his premature retirement added a sad footnote to an athlete who had seemed destined for sporting immortality.


After winning three gold medals at the Sydney Olympics as a 17-year-old then another two at Athens, Thorpe's legacy is safe. He had, however, seemed certain to scale greater heights by becoming the first male swimmer to win gold medals at three Olympics, a feat that proved even beyond the talents of Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi and Alexander Popov. Yet, with less than two years to go before his supposed crowning glory at Beijing, Thorpe pulled the plug on his career, saying swimming was no longer the most important thing in his life.


The announcement sent shockwaves through the swimming world and his millions of fans around the globe but was not a complete surprise to those who have closely followed his career. A sensitive and fundamentally shy man who has spent the past decade soaked in chlorine, Thorpe has never been comfortable with the trappings of fame and fortune since he won his first world championship in 1998 when he was just 15, becoming the youngest male world champion in history.


He spent the next six years demolishing world records and stockpiling an unprecedented collection of gold medals, that included five Olympic and 11 world titles. Aided by flipper-sized feet and hands like saucers, Thorpe possessed a perfect technique that made swimming look easy. While his rivals were thrashing and splashing their way down the pool, Thorpe would slice through the water in his trademark black swimsuit.

Nothing seemed beyond him, yet all the time he was wrestling his own demons, trapped between his sporting ambitions and his hopes for a normal life away from the constant grind of training. After scooping six gold medals at the 2001 world championships in Japan, Thorpe was facing increasing pressure to try and better Spitz's record haul of seven Olympic gold titles from the 1972 Munich Games.

Although his best performances were in 200m and 400m freestyle, Thorpe took the bait and began to experiment with new distances and strokes in the hope of finding a seventh event for Athens. But everything changed for Thorpe on Sept 11, 2001 when a brush with death convinced him his relentless pursuit of Olympic immortality was futile and there were more important things in life. Thorpe was holidaying in New York that day and was on his way to the World Trade Centre when the first hijacked plane struck the twin towers. The harrowing experience made him reassess his priorities and he vowed not to waste another day, abandoning his quest to replicate Spitz and splitting with long-time coach Doug Frost to train under Tracey Menzies, his former high school art teacher, who encouraged him to explore life outside the pool. Thorpe took her advice, travelling the world to mix with the rich and famous and indulging in his passion for fashion, but his performances began to suffer.


His final international appearance turned out to be in Athens in which he successfully defended his Olympic 400m freestyle gold and winning the 200m final, beside a bronze in the 100m. He took a year off to recharge his batteries for the long road to China but a combination of illness and the realisation that swimming was no longer his main priority led him to early retirement. – Reuters

"It's emotional because I see my entire swimming career flashing before my eyes but at the same time I have this excitement about what I'm about to do," Thorpe said. "I don't think I should be retiring, I think I'm far too young to retire, but it's a thing that we should be celebrating. I've had a great career," a relaxed Thorpe said.


Thorpe described his decision to quit as the toughest he had ever made but would not completely rule out the possibility of a comeback for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the event that was meant to crown his stellar career. "I don't see myself competing again. I don't think it will happen," Thorpe said.

"I won't rule it out. I never rule anything out, but it's just not going to happen," he said. Thorpe is one of the greatest swimmers of all time after winning 11 world titles, five Olympic gold medals and setting 13 individual long-course world records. One more gold medal in Beijing, his third Olympics, would have seen him achieve a feat beyond even the great Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi and Alexander Popov. Fellow Australian Dawn Fraser, one of just two female swimmers to win the same event at three Olympics, summed up the bittersweet reaction to his retirement, rating him the greatest freestyle swimmer yet disappointed his career was over. "I was hoping he may have gone on to Beijing to do the three events in a row and I guess in a way I'm sad," Fraser told Fox Sports. "But that's selfish of me because he's made that decision for himself, he doesn't want to put himself under any more pressure, and I say 'thank you very much for what you've done'," she said.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard described Thorpe as a remarkable swimmer and "a good bloke". Shane Gould, who retired at just 16 after winning three gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, said she understood what Thorpe had gone through. "It is a difficult thing ... I had to make the same decision and it's hell," she told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

Thorpe said it would have been easier for him to keep swimming and compete in the world championships next March but was worried that swimming had become a "safety blanket". He took up swimming at the age of five and became the youngest men's world champion in the sport's history when the then 15-year-old won the 400m freestyle in Perth in 1998.

"You can swim lap after lap staring at a black line and all of a sudden you look up and see what's around," he said. Worn down by the constant grind of training, Thorpe took a year off after winning the 200m and 400m freestyle titles at the 2004 Athens Olympics but his comeback plans were thwarted by illness and waning motivation. He began to question his continued involvement in the sport while training with Gould's partner Milt Nelms in Los Angeles this year. It was then he realised for the first time that swimming was not his main priority.

Thorpe said he had several opportunities open to him, with a career in television looming, but gave few other details. "I haven't picked up a newspaper to look for a job, but if anyone's got any good ones for an ex-Olympic swimmer..."


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Wowwwww.... that's the end of Ian Thorpe's career as an Olympic swimmer... a sad but sweet ending... To Ian Thorpe (if he happen to read my blog, who knows!!!), please do remember John Newton's poem...

I am not what I ought to be,
I am not what I want to be,
I am not what I am going to be,
But I am thankful that
I am better than I used to be.


Dear Ian,
If you wish to migrate to Malaysia & be a coach, you're most welcome!!!
Your greatest fan from Kuala Lumpur with love,
~purpleyez~
:)