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.
IT’S doubtful we will see the best of Ian Thorpe for quite a while.
Struck down with symptoms of glandular fever and a busted hand, Thorpe is in recovery mode.
History shows athletes with glandular fever rarely surpass their previous feats, as they struggle to regain their full energy levels.
So that’s bad news for Thorpe, as he aims to rebuild and hit peak form at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
It’s been four years since Thorpe broke a world record and the men’s team has had a touch of the doldrums, as it faces public expectation that it should win gold after gold.
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Jessicah Schipper will make a world record attempt over 200m butterfly at the Pan Pacific Championships in Canada this summer.
On the eve of the Brisbane Grand Prix in Australia, Schipper’s coach Ken Wood told the Australian Associated Press: “We are going to have a lash at the world record at Pan Pacs in the 200m `fly. You’ve got to have a goal and I don’t mind telling anyone.”
This weekend Schipper will race for the first time since sustaining a shoulder injury in warm-up at the world short-course championships in Shanghai. She was accidentally kicked by another swimmer just before the final of the 100 metres butterfly but still managed to pick up the bronze.
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A never-ending quest for swimming perfection may lead to the United States college circuit for world champions Libby Lenton and Leisel Jones.
Their award-winning coach Stephan Widmer said spending a season in the demanding NCAA system may be the spark his world record holders need to better their already “amazing” achievements.
They would follow in the footsteps of Ian Thorpe who is relocating to the US in the Beijing 2008 countdown and Grant Hackett who hopes to contest the NCAA circuit after the Olympics.
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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.
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Boon awarded sporting honour
`Boon’s grit and determination at the crease were legendary… ‘
David Boon joined an illustrious list of fresh intakes into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame this week.
The former Launceston batsman attended a black tie ceremony in Melbourne with his wife Pip to celebrate the coming of age of the hall of fame.
Described as the highest profile intake of members in the organisation’s 21-year history, Boon joined Sydney Olympics gold medallist Cathy Freeman, Wimbledon tennis champion Pat Cash and basketballer Andrew Gaze in taking the number of full members to 337.
The hall of fame recognised Boon’s “distinguished” career with Tasmania and Australia in which he scored 7422 Test runs, including 21 hundreds, and became the fifth most capped Australian player.
As part of his induction it said: “Boon’s grit and determination at the crease were legendary, and he often delivered the runs when Australia needed them most.”
The 44-year-old was a member of the 1987 World Cup winning side, claiming man of the match honours in the final. From 181 one day internationals, he amassed 5964 runs including five centuries.
David Johnston, chief executive of Tasmanian Cricket Association, which recently awarded Boon life membership, said: “It’s a great honour, well deserved and a testament to his contribution to Australian sport and cricket in particular.”
Swimmer Grant Hackett took out the top prize at the hall of fame awards.
The triple World Championship gold medallist was awarded the prestigious Don Award as an inspiration to his nation and his peers.
An inaugural spirit of sport award went to Lee Freedman, Glen Boss and Tony and Christine Santic in honour of the achievements of triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva.
Miatke books butterfly bout
JUST five days after completing her Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) exams, teenage world champion Danni Miatke will face a severe test of her newfound status when she meets world record-holder Anna-Karin Kammerling at the opening World Cup meet in Durban, South Africa this weekend.
Miatke, 17, made a late dash across the Indian Ocean after doing her final school exam in Melbourne on Monday.
The Darwin-born swimmer upset the experienced Swedish sprinter to take the world 50m butterfly title in Montreal in July and is part of the new wave of Australian women who have taken the world by storm this year.
Miatke is part of a 10-member team that will contest the Durban event before returning to Sydney for the next round of the World Cup on November 19-20.
Fellow world champion Jade Edmistone (50m breaststroke) will also have a world championships medallist to conquer in Germany’s Anne Poleska.
Both Miatke and Edmistone were are among the finalists for the Australian swimmer of the year awards. Triple world champions Grant Hackett and Libby Lenton scored four nominations each.
Hackett, who became the first man to win the 400m/800m/1500m freestyle treble at the world titles, and Lenton, who won the 50m freestyle, are two of the four finalists for the major award, swimmer of the year.
Leisel Jones and Jessicah Schipper are also nominated.
9. Ian Thorpe
High among the Thorpedo’s long list of achievements — Australia’s most successful Olympian, multiple world record holder, nice guy — is the fact that he is the only man to win a hat-trick of world championships in the 400 metres freestyle. In fact, he is the only man to win three consecutive titles in any of the sprint or middle-distance freestyle events (in the 1500 metres, of course, Grant Hackett has won four on the trot). What is often forgotten in his subsequent dominance is that Thorpe was quite literally a boy among men when he won his first world title as an unknown 15-year-old, way back in 1998 in Perth.
Father’s suicide haunts Ironman Hurst
Ironman champion Ky Hurst has revealed how he’s been haunted by the suicide of his father.
Hurst’s father Tim Peach - a former top grade rugby league player and Sunshine Coast-based surfer - died of a drug overdose in January, 1999, just as his then 18-year-son was emerging as one of Australia’s greatest surf life saving stars.
Peach’s family say he was receiving treatment for chronic depression and acute pain from a broken wrist at the time of his suicide.
Brought up by his mother Kerrie with younger brother Dane on the NSW central coast, Hurst said he had little contact with Peach during his childhood.
He said he tried to build a relationship with his father in his mid-teens and regrets not making more of an effort.
“I was 18 when it happened, and I was shocked and numb when Mum told me he was dead,” Hurst said in an interview in this week’s New Idea magazine.
“What happened hit us hard as a family. I often think about him - there were so many unanswered questions. Even if I wanted to, I could never erase him and what happened from my mind because he was my Dad.”
Hurst’s parents never married - he takes his mother’s surname - and contact with Peach was usually limited to birthdays and occasional meetings.
He remembers Peach as “fit, strong and good-looking - a big, solid, sporty guy”.
“Once I grew old enough to make my own decisions I thought I ought to try to make it happen - build the relationship everyone should have with both of their parents,” he said.
“It’s the biggest regret of my life that I didn’t keep in contact when I had the chance.
“If I’d gone to see him and reached out to him it may have changed something, but I’ll never know.”
Gold Coast-based Hurst, a four-time national ironman champion whose grandfather, uncle and mother have all excelled in surf life saving, is now focussing on swimming.
The 24-year-old is set to take on training partner and multiple Olympic and world champion Grant Hackett in the 1500m freestyle at next year’s Commonwealth Games trials.
Hurst, recently a competitor on Channel Seven’s Dancing With The Stars, also aims to contest the 10km open water swim event which has been added to the 2008 Beijing Olympic program.
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.”
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