Ian Thorpe: Back in the the pool, retirement over. London calling?
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Blockbuster news from Australia: Swimming legend Ian Thorpe has resumed training and is aiming for a spot on the Australian team at the London Olympics next year.
‘The level of expectation that is on me is enormous,’ he said at a live news conference today in Sydney. ‘It’s probably only outweighed by my own expectations.’
The 28-year-old who has won five Olympic gold medals retired more than four years ago. He said he does most of his training in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, relocating there later this month, and will call upon the advice of Australian coach Leigh Nugent and other top international coaches.
His primary focus will be on the shorter freestyle events, the 100 and 200, with a eye on making it in the relays. The priority will be the 100-meter freestyle.
Thorpe kept his comeback project under a veil of secrecy, and told his close associates to ‘lie through their teeth.’
‘I thought I’d get busted for it a whole lot earlier,’ he said. ‘I thought after about two weeks people would be on to it and I’d need to fly out an entire team somewhere else in the world to be able to get on with the training. I was really sneaky about how I did my training.
‘I’ve been swimming at eight different pools so I wouldn’t turn up to the same pool twice in a row. I slipped up once.’
Thorpe spoke about what competing at London would mean to him.
‘It was on my bucket list to swim another Olympics before I was 30,’ he said. ‘That and playing James Bond. Starting a rock band, being a pilot. And this seemed the most realistic.’
--Lisa Dillman
