The Thorpedo retires
It was a rainy Wednesday morning when I read this article about Australian swimming sensation Ian Thorpe retiring from competitive swimming at the age of 24. I don’t think many people realize the impact he made in swimming, both financially and peformance-wise.
Thorpe was fortunate enough to be swimming in a country where they revere and treat their swimmers like other pro athletes and thus was able to make a living from it. This is very unlike Canada where many of our athletes depend on grants, scholarships, and jobs to survive. Thorpe raised swimming’s status on the sport world stage. If you’d only seen pictures of adoring Japanese girls mobbing him during his competitions there you’d understand.
From a swimmer’s perspective, the Thorpedo began his career dominating the long distance swim events, such as the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle events. It wasn’t until later that he began to focus on the middle distances of 200m and 400m. In my mind, the most impressive race in my mind was his 3rd place finish swimming in lane 1 at the Olympics in Athens in the 100m free. Can you imagine how difficult it is for the human body to transition RACING the running equivalent of 10k to the 400m? That’s what Thorpe was able to do in the pool. Consider this: 11 world titles, five Olympic gold medals and setting 13 individual long-course world record.
My favorites moments would be watching him race with Pieter van Hoogenband, Grant Hackett or Michael Phelps, because there was an electricity at those events. His velvet smooth stroke and his powerful last-length kicks were his trademark, and I’m saddended that I won’t be able to see him at Beijing 2008.
With that said, all the best in your future endeavours Ian!
