Stevens teams up with Thorpe

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IAN THORPE and Craig Stevens, two names forever bound together in Australian sporting folklore, will be linked even closer following Stevens’ decision to quit the AIS and train alongside his close friend under coach Tracey Menzies in Sydney.

It was Stevens who made it possible for Thorpe to defend his Olympic 400m freestyle title in Athens, surrendering his swim in the event to Thorpe who seemingly had cost himself a near-certain gold medal when he false-started at the Olympic trials in March.

Stevens’ gesture was generously rewarded when the Seven Network paid him an unconfirmed $100,000 for the exclusive announcement of his decision, but it is widely accepted in swimming circles that it was his close friendship with Thorpe that prompted the then 23-year-old to make the sacrifice, not the money.

With an emotional Stevens watching from the grandstand, Thorpe overcame his own turbulent emotions and a determined Grant Hackett to narrowly win the 400m freestyle gold on the opening night of Games competition.

“I just wanted to watch Ian and Grant race for the title and both those guys went at it pretty hard … the outcome was what I’d hoped for,” Stevens said this week, referring to the Australian 1-2 finish in Athens.

While Stevens was delighted that Thorpe was able to deliver everything he had hoped for, he himself might have been so affected by the drawn-out “would he or wouldn’t he give up the swim” saga that he was unable to achieve his own goals in Athens.

He swam below his best in the heats of the 4×200m freestyle and surrendered his place in the quartet that went on to win the silver medal in the final. Then, distressed by the heat, he just scraped into the 1500m freestyle final and swam 12 seconds outside his best time in finishing eighth.

“It was a very emotional time and, looking back, I wonder if it didn’t happen maybe I could have got through my preparation a little better,” Stevens said.

Still physically and emotionally flattened by his Athens experience, Stevens is unsure when he will resume training but, when he does, he might well back off from the 1500m freestyle for a while.

“I wouldn’t mind getting my 400m times down a bit and I’m going to be trying to work my way back into the top four for the 4×200m freestyle relay,” he said.

After training alongside Thorpe under Doug Frost at the Sutherland Pool before joining the AIS in 2001, Stevens said he was looking forward to linking up with an old training partner and a new coach.

“Tracey has proven herself a very good coach,” he said. “Everyone can get off her back now after what she did with Ian at the Olympics. She did an outstanding job. I’m just looking forward to enjoying swimming a little more and doing a few things differently in training. Tracey sets more out-of-the-water training than most coaches.”

Menzies said yesterday that having two swimmers of the calibre of Thorpe and Stevens training together could only lift them both and she was keen to help Stevens improve in the 400m freestyle.

The Menzies squad also has been boosted by the arrival of Sydney Olympic middle distance swimmer Kirsten Thomson, who underwent a series of tests to determine what was wrong with her after she missed out on the Athens team and amazingly discovered she is allergic to chlorine.