Ian Thorpe

Is it a demonstration of what’s great about the Aussie spirit to keep doing something even after you find out for sure 20 people younger than you are better at it, and your Olympic hopes are dashed?

Ian Thorpe’s disappointing weekend in the pool, and what he said once he got out of the pool, has got me stumped. They guy is a great champion, and not just that, he seems like an incredibly decent person too.

He should be remembered not just for his incredible feats in competitive swimming, but for the way he behaved while he was under the white-hot glare of Australian expectations for all those years. You can’t fake good character for that long when you’re that young.

Continue reading "Thorpie, please don’t squander your legacy" »

This weekend, as the world remembered events in the north eastern Japanese town of Fukushima, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe would have done well to reflect on his past deeds in the south western Japanese city of Fukuoka.

It was at the 1997 Fukuoka Pan Pacific Championships that 14 year old Ian Thorpe first announced himself to the world, winning silver in the 400m freestyle in an Olympics-strength field.

Four years later, with three Sydney Olympics golds under his belt, Thorpe won an unprecedented six gold medals at the Fukuoka World Championships. Those performances made him an imported icon of Beckhamesque stature in Japan.

Continue reading "It’s time for Thorpey to get over his black line fever" »

Tiger Woods is one contradictory cat. There’s a human being inside that shell, a living, breathing, joke-cracking, thoughtful guy with all kinds of normal human feelings.

But there’s also a mercenary. A man who this week privately played golf with anonymous Chinese millionaires for huge sums of money. A golfing enthusiast who will rave about Australia’s world class golf courses, and how he wishes America had more courses like ours, then greedily pocket three million for the privilege of playing here.

But if you think Tiger is ruthless in the way he subjugates all dignity in his endless quest to accumulate money, that’s nothing on the way he suppresses his own emotions. At his Tuesday media call at The Lakes Golf Club, which The Punch attended, he didn’t once acknowledge the effect his marital break-up and sex scandal had on his golf game.

Continue reading "Washed-up champs who don’t know when to quit" »

IAN Thorpe’s comeback to Olympic swimming could be as disastrous as the former champion’s illegal flop into the pool at the 2004 Olympic trials. Thorpe’s freakish ability to carve up the pool and wipe out his opponents has been proven time and time again. But his powers to overcome hurdles to make it back on the Olympic dais are weakening, year by year.

Thorpe will make the Australian Olympic team. He is such a perfectionist that he will make it happen. But whether he wins an individual medal – or a world record for that matter – is now a topic of great debate. It’s been almost 10 years since Thorpie smashed a world record – Manchester’s 2002 Commonwealth Games in the 400m freestyle. His world records were broken over a period of five years – when his body was still growing. In 2002, Thorpe was just 19. He never broke a world record after Manchester.

After Thorpe stopped growing, we never saw the form he produced as a teenager. Here are 10 reasons why Thorpie won’t set the world on fire in London 2012.

Continue reading "10 reasons why Thorpe won’t claim a world record again" »

Oddly-coloured, self-indulgent and attention-starved. That’s how Ian Thorpe came across at yesterday’s glitzy, jam-packed press conference.

Yesterday, I wrote glowing things about Thorpe. I couldn’t, and still can’t, say enough about his genuine, intelligent commitment to the welfare of indigenous Australians.

Then came his presser, where none other than the CEO of Virgin Blue announced Thorpe’s comeback to competitive swimming.

Continue reading "@IanThorpe’s epic press conference fail" »

Two seconds. That’s the difference between Ian Thorpe’s old 200m freestyle world record and the current world mark. With or without wacky swimsuits, swimming has moved on, and fast, since the Thorpedo quit in 2006.

Yet it seems almost certain that at noon, Ian Thorpe will announce a return to competitive swimming. After all, he’s hardly going to call a big press conference to say “Nup, staying retired. Nothing to see here.”

The question is: will Thorpe be able to cut it at the London 2012 Olympics if he returns?

Continue reading "Should Ian Thorpe come out of retirement?" »