Fears are emerging that a sojourn in California may be very costly for our star swimmer, writes Jessica Halloran.
The training pool is only half an hour from Thorpe’s Hollywood home but the swimmer has only been seen in it a handful of times by the Herald since he arrived in California in June.
Thorpe has been mixing it with the stars since he moved to Los Angeles, reportedly to escape the spotlight in Australia. It was thought he would be more anonymous in Los Angeles and he might be able to reignite the hunger for the pool. Some are starting to think he may be starting to run out of time for the world titles in March.
IF Ian Thorpe were almost any other swimmer, Australia’s head coach Alan Thompson would be preparing to write him off as a gold medal prospect at the next Olympics.
“For a normal person, he would be at that point now,” Thompson says. “But he’s not a normal person. He’s one of the greatest athletes we have seen.”
Australia’s greatest Olympian has not raced at international level since his Athens triumph almost two years ago. He took six months out of the pool completely, got back into shape late last year, then raced solidly at the NSW titles last December and the Commonwealth Games trials in February.
But then things went pear-shaped.
IAN Thorpe has all but ruled out a return to longer distances in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympic Games IN bEIJING.
Thorpe revealed tonight that he was reluctant to add the 400m freestyle - which he dropped prior to this year’s Commonwealth Games - to his sprint-oriented program.
The 23-year-old elected to ditch his pet 400m event in a bid to concentrate on the 100m.
(more…)
Thorpe asked to replace Hackett
NATIONAL head coach Alan Thompson will appeal to a wavering Ian Thorpe to consider swimming the 400m freestyle at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, to bolster an Australia team weakened by the loss of injured world champion Grant Hackett.
Thorpe’s coach Tracey Menzies indicated three months ago that he was likely to concentrate on the 100m and 200m freestyle in Melbourne. However, Thorpe said last month that he would not make up his mind about his signature event until just before the Games selection trials at the end of January.
Thompson said he would raise the 400m issue with Thorpe and Menzies during this weekend’s World Cup meet in Sydney, where Thorpe will swim his first race, the 100m freestyle, since the Athens Olympics.
Thompson, though, said he “was not going to put any pressure on Ian to do something that is not of his choosing”.
Thorpe has signalled his intention to move towards the sprints for his third Olympic appearance, in Beijing in 2008.
Thompson may be looking for ways to replace Hackett as a swimmer in Melbourne, but not as a captain.
He predicted that Swimming Australia would decline to name an interim captain while Hackett was sidelined with a shoulder injury.
The dual Olympic 1500m champion underwent surgery last night to correct a suspected tendon tear under his right shoulder blade. He is expected to be out of the water for up to two months, ruling him out of the Melbourne Games.
“We are not going to be looking to replace Grant,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the Australia team would appoint a leadership group of four after the trials, from which one or more would be appointed as the team spokesperson.
This year’s leadership group comprised Michael Klim, Jim Piper, Giaan Rooney and Brooke Hanson.
Thompson said he was still hopeful Hackett would recover in time to lead the national team to the world short-course championships in Shanghai in April. Hackett is expected to be fully fit by the Pan Pacific championships in Vancouver in August, but faces a selection stumbling block there.
The trials for both the Commonwealth Games and the Pan Pacs are being held in January, while he is recovering from his surgery.
Thompson expects that Hackett will skip the Pan Pacs to prepare thoroughly for the 2007 world championships, also to be held in Melbourne.
Talent pool deeper than it looks, says Frost
The man who took Ian Thorpe from learn-to-swim classes to Olympic champion and world record-breaker, believes there will soon be a resurgence in men’s swimming in Australia.
While Thorpe and Grant Hackett were the core of the Australian men’s team in Athens last year, and Hackett the leader without Thorpe at the world titles in Montreal this year, outside that pair, the male ranks have been looking extremely vulnerable.
At the worlds, the women were brilliant, winning 10 of Australia’s 13 gold medals. Just four of the 21 women failed to win a medal. The men’s team’s three golds were all won by Hackett.
But Doug Frost, who took a coaching post at the Australian Institute of Sport this year, thinks the future is not as bleak as some think, and Australians could see the next wave of local male swimmers emerge as early as the Commonwealth Games next year.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Frost said yesterday. “I think we’ll see a new bunch of guys - I don’t think they are quite up with Ian and Grant’s level - but we’ve got some people coming through who could at least fill in the gaps. Just speaking of my own squad, young Hayden Jackson is doing a hell of a job down here and so is Nick Ffrost. They are only little guys but they are doing well and I see them as ones for the future.
“I can assure you there are some very talented young men coming up through the ranks and I think it’s just a matter of time before a couple of them jump up. I’m hoping that a couple of them can jump up there and fill some gaps at the Commonwealth Games. I tell you what it will do, if it doesn’t do anything in the immediate future, it will put people on notice … In one area we’ve got two of the best swimmers in the world [Thorpe and Hackett], but in other areas we’ve got less effective athletes.
“You only have to reflect back to the Olympics in 2000. The women, with exception of about three or four athletes, we didn’t have a very strong team, but the men were good. Then in two years, the women had turned themselves around.
“It doesn’t take much - it might take a little bit more with men because they take longer to mature - but I just see some talent there, guys like Nic Spenger, he’s a real talent, and Ethan Rolff from Kingscliff, he looks good. I see kids that can do anything in say, two years, come the world championships in 2007.”
All coaches look for a Thorpe, and these days Frost is no different. He knows how special Thorpe was - and still is - but said he was sure one like him would emerge - “it’s just a matter of when”. Frost said he had no doubt Thorpe would be able to successfully return after taking a year off competitive swimming. He said the break was something that had been coming since the Sydney Games.
“He is very talented and probably mentally he needed to have that break,” he said. “He was 17 when he swam at his first Olympics and you talk about pressure, there was a lot of pressure on him, and you could see the relief when he got up and swam so well in the 400metres. It was like a huge burden was lifted off his back.
“I think by the time 2004 came around he was probably looking for a break. I don’t think it’s a problem and I think he would have been smart enough to do a little bit of work … I’ve heard he’s doing a pretty good job in training … so I think he’ll be strong when he comes back.
“He’s the best middle-distance swimmer the world has seen, and I don’t think he’s really reached his full potential in that area, but I think the way he is going is to focus more on the 100m freestyle, and he’ll have his work cut out, especially with the boys [Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling] from South Africa. The Commonwealth Games will not be easy for Ian, but it will be good to see him back.”
Thorpe to make trials return
IAN Thorpe will return to competitive swimming at the Australian selection trials for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Thorpe, 23, was among the swimmers listed today by Swimming Australia for the team selection trials in Melbourne from January 30 to February 4.
The trials will be held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, the site for the Commonwealth Games aquatic events.
Thorpe, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder in the 200m and 400m freestyle skipped the world championships in Montreal last month.
But his manager, Dave Flaskas, said Thorpe had been in training to regain fitness ahead of the trials, and had set his sights on winning gold in the 200m and 400m in Melbourne ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
“He’s been refreshing himself and having a bit of a break, but training really hard and just getting ready for the Commonwealth Games,” Flaskas said earlier this month.
Seventeen world and Olympic champions are entered for the trials.
Apart from Thorpe, Australia’s world and Olympic champions to compete at the trials are Grant Hackett, Jodie Henry, Leisel Jones, Libby Lenton, Danni Miatke, Jessicah Schipper, Jade Edmistone, Michael Klim, Brooke Hanson, Matt Welsh, Ashley Callus, Giaan Rooney, Sophie Edington, Alice Mills, Shayne Reese and Jim Piper.
“Our Australian Championships will be a great run up to the Games, and it will feature all our gold medallists from the recent FINA world championships in Montreal,” Swimming Australias chief executive Glenn Tasker said in a statement.
“It will also mark the return of Ian Thorpe to a major swim meet for the first time since last years Athens Olympics.
“In some events it will be just as tough to win an Australian Championship as it will be to win the Commonwealth Games.” “We expect the racing to be as competitive as ever; everyone wants to win a place on this team.
“To compete in front of your home crowd, especially in the sport of swimming, will be an honour that none of them will ever forget.
“This is the only chance our swimmers will have to make the Commonwealth Games team.
“It is going to be make or break for them.”
Hackett to sink Thorpedo, says Perkins
Mission impossible? Maybe not. Kieren Perkins says Grant Hackett can beat Ian Thorpe over 400 metres in the Beijing Olympic freestyle final - but believes the result will be known before they even hit the water.
For Hackett to conquer Thorpe, Perkins says he must first be able to convince himself that he can do it. If he manages to get himself up on the blocks without being overawed by the imposing man beside him in the big black suit, Perkins insists that Hackett can pull off an unforgettable triumph.
“Based on current form, you’d have to say Grant has got the wood on Ian,” dual Olympic gold medallist Perkins said.
“It’s going to take Ian a little time to get back to normal in the water after his year off but from Grant’s point of view, I also don’t think he’s 100 per cent convinced that he can have Ian covered.
“That’s always been the case, in my view. There’s an element of mental games between those two that will continue for a while to come.”
Thorpe will skip the 400m in his return to top-flight competition at the Commonwealth Games in February, gifting Hackett the title, but the two-time Olympic champion will return to the 400 as Beijing approaches in an attempt to emulate Dawn Fraser’s benchmark of greatness in Australian swimming: three straight Olympic gold medals in the same event.
“Ian is going to have a tough time of it when he comes back,” Perkins said. “Grant is still swimming personal-best times and it’s been a while since Ian has done that.”
The great unknown with Thorpe is how he will be affected by his 12-month absence from competition.
The question of who is greater may end up not being resolved until the Beijing Olympics - and the 400m final.
Thorpe likely to drop 400 at Melbourne
Olympic and world champion Ian Thorpe is likely to drop the 400 metres freestyle from his Commonwealth Games itinerary as he shifted his focus to taking on the sprinting world, coach Tracey Menzies said yesterday.
Menzies said Thorpe, who was aiming to return to competition in December, felt mentally burnt out with the 400 freestyle, especially after the dramatic lead-up to last year’s Athens Olympics, and he wanted a break from the event he has dominated since the 1998 world championships.
She said Thorpe, who will compete in the 200 freestyle, could even consider replacing the 400 with the 50 freestyle in Melbourne next year.
However Menzies said the decision, if Thorpe did cut the event, would not necessarily mean the end of his participation in an event in which he has won three world championships and his second Olympic gold last year.
“He just wants a bit of a break from it. Everyone knows the pressure he had as far as the 400 (last year). I just think you need to find new stimulants and a new love in what you are doing and the break has probably been a good thing for him,” she said.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
Menzies said Thorpe had been eyeing the challenge of the 100 freestyle. It would also be one of the genuine world-class events at the Commonwealth Games with the field including South African world championship silver and bronze medallists Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling.
Menzies conceded Thorpe could find it difficult to return to the 400 freestyle — an event that required different training to the sprints — especially if his times in the 100, in which he won a Commonwealth Games gold and Olympic and world bronze, substantially improve.
“That’s something you have got to be committed to do … you can facilitate all the training programs but whether they … take it on board as mature and elite athletes, it’s got to be self-ownership, too,” she said.
Menzies said Thorpe was back in training, which has included some medley work, although he was unlikely to compete in the 200 individual medley at the Commonwealth Games, and was aiming to resume at the NSW titles.
Menzies felt the success of the women’s team and Grant Hackett’s performances would ease the expectations and pressure on Thorpe.
“He is part of the team and that’s the way he sees himself,” she said.
The greats debate
Ian Thorpe may be the best middle-distance swimmer in history, Grant Hackett the greatest over long distances. Michael Cowley compares the two giants of Australian swimming.
Grant Hackett, so often left in the wake of Ian Thorpe, closed the world swimming championships in Montreal with a record fourth straight 1500 metres world title and the swimmer of the meeting award.
But with Thorpe enjoying his year away from competitive swimming, a time when he is seen more on the social pages than the sporting pages, Hackett has put forward over the past eight days a strong argument for being the better swimmer of the pair.
It’s considered that Thorpe has the talent, Hackett the courage and determination, but judging who is the better swimmer is not that easy.
Thorpe specialises in the short events, the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 400 metres — a race he hasn’t been beaten in since 1997. Hackett, while delving into the 200 and the 400, is a specialist in the 800 metres and the 1500 metres — a race he hasn’t been beaten in since 1996.
Thorpe is possibly the greatest middle-distance swimmer in history. He holds the world records in the 200 metres and 400 metres. Hackett is possibly the greatest distance swimmer in history. He holds the world records in the 800 metres and 1500 metres.
Thorpe holds the edge on the medal front. He has five Olympic gold, Hackett has two. At world championships, Hackett has 17 medals, 10 of them gold, and while Thorpe has only 13, 11 of those are gold.
Longevity is often used as a yardstick to determine greatness. Both have been around for almost a decade and in Beijing in 2008, both will be there and both chasing history. No man has won the same swimming event at three consecutive Olympics. Hackett will attempt it in the 1500 metres, Thorpe in the 400 metres.
While Hackett frequently races Thorpe in Thorpe’s events, Thorpe really only tried distance swimming back in 2001.
That year, Thorpe and Hackett raced the 800 metres twice. Both times they both broke the world record, and both times Thorpe narrowly won. Of course, since then, Hackett has broken Thorpe’s world record.
Thorpe has not raced in Hackett’s prime event, the 1500 metres.
It is worth considering what might have happened had the other not been around.
If Thorpe had been from a different era, Hackett would have won another 11 gold medals from major international events, one for each time he has finished second to Thorpe. He also has finished second to Thorpe in world-record time on five occasions.
As for Thorpe, if Hackett had not been around, he would have one extra gold medal to replace the silver he won behind Hackett in the 400 metres at the 1997 Pan Pac Championships.
Hackett admitted that he found it different without Thorpe in Montreal.
“I am sure he is at home feeling motivated by watching this and wanting to step up again,” Hackett said. “I am looking forward to the challenge of swimming against him.”
Determining who is the greatest is a tough call but rather than looking at who is the best, it is perhaps wiser to consider how fortunate Australia is to have not one, but both of them.
While Thorpe’s away, Hackett makes his mark
WHILE Grant Hackett was breaking the 800m freestyle world record in Montreal yesterday, the man whose title he snatched was lying on his chiropractor’s bench in Sydney.
Ian Thorpe, who is taking a year off competition to pursue his business and fashion interests and stay fresh for next year’s Commonwealth Games, did his best to keep a low profile to avoid stealing the limelight from his long-time rival.
Hackett took half a second off the record Thorpe set in Fukuoka four years ago to claim his second gold medal of this year’s world championships, to go with his 400m freestyle title.
“I’m extremely happy for him,” Thorpe said yesterday. “Delighted. He deserves it. Grant works so hard, so success should come his way.
“He deserves to own the 800m world record, being a distance swimmer.”
Hackett has always believed he is Thorpe’s equal in the pool. As great as Thorpe proved in middle-distance freestyle, Hackett has known he could be equally great as a distance swimmer.
Hackett has long believed that the supreme distance swimmer should hold the 800m and 1500m freestyle world records and that, despite his two Olympic 1500m gold medals, he would not be truly great until he had done so. Already holding the 1500m record, he stopped the clock in the 800m yesterday at 7min 38.65sec, beating Thorpe’s world mark of 7:39.16.
He said afterwards that breaking a Thorpe record gave him “absolute credibility” at the distance.
“Breaking a world record is nice no matter whose it is,” Hackett said. “But when it’s Ian’s, it’s always a little bit extra satisfying, knowing how much of a good competitor he is.
“I’ve broken that world record twice before and finished second to him, so it’s nice to get under that mark and produce a great swim.”
Throughout their careers, Thorpe and Hackett have been inextricably linked. They have exchanged text messages this week and Hackett said he appreciated the absent Thorpe’s support.
But when the two are compared, opinion almost inevitably favours Thorpe, whose five Olympic gold medals make him Australia’s greatest Games athlete.
While Hackett captains the Australian team in Montreal, Thorpe is training in Sydney at the Sutherland Aquatic Centre under coach Tracey Menzies.
His routine includes two daily sessions in the pool and recovery work with massage therapists and chiropractors, as well as boxing, yoga and weightlifting.
Leave a passing comment »