Ian thorpe olympics
Ian Thorpe
Australian swimmer (born )
Thorpe at Doha GOALS Forum | |
| Full&#;name | Ian James Thorpe |
|---|---|
| Nicknames | |
| National&#;team | &#;Australia |
| Born | () 13 October (age&#;42) Sydney, Australia |
| Height | &#;m (6&#;ft 5&#;in) |
| Weight | &#;kg (&#;lb) |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Freestyle |
| Club | SLC Aquadot |
| Coach | |
Ian James ThorpeAM (born 13 October ) is an Australian retired[1] swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley.
He has won five Olympic gold medals, the second most won by any Australian after fellow swimmer Emma McKeon.
With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the Summer Olympics, held in his hometown of Sydney.
At the age of 14, Thorpe became the youngest male ever to represent Australia,[2] and his victory in the &#;metre freestyle at the Perth World Championships made him the youngest-ever individual male World Champion.[3] After that victory, Thorpe dominated the &#;m freestyle, winning the event at every Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Swimming Championships until his break after the Olympics in Athens.[4] At the World Aquatics Championships, he became the first person to win six gold medals in one World Championship.[5] Aside from 13 individual long-course world records, Thorpe anchored the Australian relay teams, numbering the victories in the 4&#;×&#;&#;m and the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle relays in Sydney among his five relay world records.
His wins in the &#;m and &#;m and his bronze in the &#;m freestyle at the Summer Olympics made him the only male to have won medals in the –– combination.[4] He acquired the nickname "Thorpedo" because of his speed in swimming. Thorpe announced his retirement from competitive swimming in November , citing waning motivation;[6] he made a brief comeback in and
In total, Thorpe has won eleven World Championship gold medals; this is the fifth-highest number of gold medals won by any male swimmer.[7] Thorpe was the first person to have been named Swimming World Swimmer of the Year four times,[8][9] and was the Australian Swimmer of the Year from to His athletic achievements made him one of Australia's most popular athletes, and he was recognised as the Young Australian of the Year in [10]
Early years
Born in Sydney, Thorpe grew up in the suburb of Milperra and hailed from a sporting family.[11] His father Ken was a promising cricketer at junior level, representing Bankstown District Cricket Club in Sydney's district competition.[11][12][13] A talented batsman, he once topped the season's batting averages ahead of former Australian captainBob Simpson.
Ian thorpe gallery: Ian James Thorpe AM (born 13 October ) is an Australian retired [1] swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the second most won by any Australian after fellow swimmer Emma McKeon.
However, paternal pressure detracted from Ken's enjoyment of cricket, and he retired at the age of [14] Thorpe's mother Margaret played A-grade netball,[12][15] but he did not inherit his parents' ball skills.[13] His elder sister Christina was advised to take up swimming to strengthen a broken wrist, so by chance, the five-year-old Thorpe followed her into the pool.[12][13][16] Due to his unhappy experiences, Ken Thorpe regarded enjoyment as the most critical aspect of his children's participation in sport.[15] A large baby, Thorpe weighed &#;kg (&#;lb) and measured 59&#;cm (1&#;ft 11&#;in) in length at birth.[17]
As a young child, Thorpe was sidelined by an allergy to chlorine.[3] As a result, he did not swim in his first race until a school carnival at the age of seven.[18] The allergy forced Thorpe to swim with his head out of the water; despite this ungainly technique, he won the race, primarily because of his significant size advantage.[11][19][20] Thorpe gradually overcame the ailment and progressed to the captaincy of New South Wales for the Australian Primary Schools Championships in [21] He subsequently won nine individual gold medals at the New South Wales Short Course Age Championships in September of the same year.[22] In , Thorpe started his secondary education at East Hills Boys Technology High School[11][23] and switched coaches to swim alongside his sister under the tutelage of Doug Frost.[20] It was a busy year for the family; Christina was selected for the Australian team to compete at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Atlanta.[24] Now six feet tall, Ian competed at his first Australian Age Championships, winning bronze medals in the &#;m and &#;m freestyle.
He won all ten events at the New South Wales Age Championships.[3][25][26]
National competition
Thorpe competed at the Australian Age Championships in Brisbane, winning five gold, two silver and two bronze medals.[4] His times in the &#;m freestyle and &#;m backstroke qualified him for the Australian Championships,[27] which doubled as selection trials for the Atlanta Olympics.
Frost knew that Thorpe had no realistic chance of making the top two in any event, which would have meant Olympic selection at only 13 years and six months. He sent Thorpe to Sydney merely to gain competition experience at senior national level.[27] As expected, Thorpe missed selection; he finished 23rd in the &#;m freestyle and 36th in the &#;m backstroke.[27] At the end of the year, Thorpe qualified for the Australian Short Course Championships.
It was another chance to gain national selection, as the event served as the selection trials for the FINA World Swimming Championships. Thorpe qualified in second place in the heats of the &#;m individual medley and reached his first national final.[28] However, he swam more slowly in the final and missed selection.[28]
At the New South Wales Championships in January , Thorpe's time of 3&#;min &#;s in the &#;m was eight seconds faster than his previous personal best;[28] it made him the first year-old to cover the distance in less than four minutes on Australian soil.
Dawn fraser
He is most notably known for being the youngest to win a world championship. Thorpe specializes in freestyle but also competes in backstroke and individual medley. On November 21 he announced his retirement from swimming after 10 years on the Australian team, citing that he has lost the desire, and "there are things in my life that are more important to me and I have to pursue them now". In , he announced he return to swimming, wanting to compete in the Olympic Games. The comeback was unsuccessful.Ranked fourth for the event countrywide,[28] Thorpe went into the Australian Championships in Adelaide as a serious contender for selection in the national team for the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. With a top-three finish and a specific qualifying time required for selection, Thorpe focused on the &#;m freestyle after injuries to world record holder Kieren Perkins and Daniel Kowalski; both had won Olympic medals in the event.
Thorpe went on to win bronze behind year-old Queenslander Grant Hackett, setting a new personal best of 3&#;min &#;s.[29] The time was a world record for his age group and the race was the first of many battles with Hackett.[29]
Aged 14 years and 5 months, Thorpe became the rd[30] and youngest ever male to be selected for the Australian team,[3][20] surpassing John Konrads' record by one month.[31] Frost said that Thorpe's selection catalysed his eventual focus on freestyle.
Thorpe continued his good form at the Australian Age Championships. He contested all twelve events, winning ten individual gold and two bronze medals.[32] He set six Australian records in the process.[12][29]
Early international career (–)
International debut ()
In June , two months before the Pan Pacific Championships, Thorpe required an appendix operation, which caused him to miss two weeks of training.[33] Upon reaching Japan, Thorpe placed fourth in his heat of the &#;m freestyle with a new personal best time of 1&#;min &#;s.[34] Thorpe's time was not enough to qualify for the final, but earned him selection in the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle relay team.
Along with teammates Michael Klim, Ian van der Wal and Hackett, Thorpe claimed silver, making him the youngest ever Pan Pacific medalist.[34] In his first individual final at international level, Thorpe was fifth at the &#;m mark, but fought back to claim silver in the &#;m freestyle behind Hackett in a time of 3&#;min &#;s.[3][35][36][37] His finishing burst was to become a trademark, and his time would have been enough to win silver at the Atlanta Olympics.[2][12] In October , a few days before his fifteenth birthday, Thorpe competed in qualifying trials in Brisbane for the World Aquatics Championships in Perth.
Thorpe gained selection for the world championships by finishing fourth and second in the &#;m and &#;m freestyle respectively.
Michael phelps Ian Thorpe won five Olympic gold medals, the greatest total of any Australian. Thorpe first grabbed world attention when he won the world m freestyle title in Perth, becoming, at 15, the youngest world champion in history. At the age of 12, he competed in 13 events at a state meet, and set under-age NSW records in all of them. Fully grown, he had a large frame, an arm span of cm and size 17 feet. As his first Olympics approached, in Sydney, he had broken 10 world records - four of them in four days at the Pan Pacific titles.He set new personal bests in both events.[38]
World Aquatics Championships
Thorpe's first international appearance in his home country, at the World Championships in Perth, began with the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle relay. Swimming the third leg after Klim and Hackett, Thorpe broke away from &#;m butterfly Olympic championTom Malchow to set a split time of 1&#;min &#;s, just seconds slower than Klim's winning time in the &#;m final.[39] By the end of Thorpe's leg, the Australians were two seconds ahead of the world record pace, and three seconds ahead of the Americans, having extended the lead by two body lengths.
Although anchorman Kowalski finished outside the world record,[40] it was the first time that Australia had won the event at the global level since [4] Thorpe was ranked fourth in the world before the &#;m final, which Hackett led from the outset. Hackett established a comfortable &#;s lead over Thorpe by the &#;m mark, and although Thorpe reduced the margin to &#;s at the &#;m mark, Hackett led until Thorpe passed him on the final stroke.[41] Thorpe's time was the fourth fastest in history and made him the youngest ever male individual world champion, aged 15 years and 3 months.[3][35][36][42]
As a result of the media attention generated by his win on home soil, Thorpe received multiple offers for television commercials and was often surrounded by autograph hunters.[43] He became a high-profile supporter of the Children's Cancer Institute, after his sister Christina's future brother-in-law Michael Williams became gravely ill with cancer.[44][45]
Commonwealth Games
Thorpe's next competition was in March at the Australian Championships in Melbourne, which were selection trials for the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.
Thorpe's improvement continued when he defeated Klim in the &#;m freestyle in 1&#;min &#;s, faster than Klim's winning time at the World Championship two months earlier.[46] Thorpe's time was a Commonwealth record[47] and with it, he secured his first national title.
Ian thorpe boyfriend It's getting out of the water knowing you could have done better. For myself, I have won every race I've been in. He is the most decorated male Australian Olympian, and was the most successful athlete at the Summer Olympics in Sydney. In his youth, Thorpe followed his older sister to the pool, where he promptly discovered a chlorine allergy. Only with the help of a nose-clip was he able to compete with his face in the water — and then the Thorpedo was born.He then claimed the &#;m freestyle title from Hackett and clocked &#;s in the &#;m freestyle. His time earned silver in his first &#;m race at the national level, gaining him Commonwealth selection in three individual events.[48]
Thorpe's rise continued when the Australians arrived in Kuala Lumpur during September for the Commonwealth Games.
Thorpe's first event was the &#;m freestyle, where he led throughout to record a time just one hundredth of a second outside Giorgio Lamberti's world record.[49] He then combined with Klim, Kowalski and Matt Dunn in the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle relay to break the world record of the Unified Team set in by &#;s.[50] Thorpe's run ended when a personal best of &#;s in the &#;m freestyle was only sufficient for fourth place, but he returned to victory with the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle relay team.[49] He claimed a fourth gold in the &#;m freestyle, setting another personal best, just &#;s slower than Kieren Perkins' mark.[3][4][51][52][53]
Thorpe left school at the end of the year after completing Year His decision caused concerns that concentrating on swimming alone could lead to burn out.[54] Thorpe disagreed, pointing to his informal search for knowledge, stating that "Swimming is a small part of my life".[54] His impact in the swimming community was acknowledged when he became the youngest male swimmer to be named as the Swimming World Swimmer of the Year.[54]
Record-breaking years (–)
The year began with heavy media expectations that Thorpe would inevitably break both &#;m and &#;m world records, given his continuing physical growth.
The first opportunity came in late March at the Australian Championships in Brisbane, which doubled as a selection event for the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Thorpe again won the &#;m, but Perkins' record eluded him, this time by just &#;s.[55] Hackett turned the tables in the &#;m event, passing Thorpe in the final 50&#;m to win Thorpe's title.[35] Although both were outside Lamberti's mark, Hackett went on to break it the following night in a relay event.[56][57] Thorpe finished the Championships by continuing his improvement in the &#;m freestyle, posting a time of &#;s, his first under the 50&#;s barrier.
The Australian team then travelled to Hong Kong for the World Short Course Championships, where Thorpe broke Lamberti's mark in the &#;m freestyle, the longest standing world record at the time. However, Hackett defeated him in the &#;m.[3][58] This was the start of a three-year phase where Thorpe was to set his 13 individual long course world records.
He led the men's relay team to unprecedented success in relay events, scoring historic victories over the Americans.
Biography of ian thorpe Ian James Thorpe AM born 13 October is an Australian retired [ 1 ] swimmer who specialised in freestyle , but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the second most won by any Australian after fellow swimmer Emma McKeon. With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the Summer Olympics , held in his hometown of Sydney. At the age of 14, Thorpe became the youngest male ever to represent Australia, [ 2 ] and his victory in the metre freestyle at the Perth World Championships made him the youngest-ever individual male World Champion. His wins in the m and m and his bronze in the m freestyle at the Summer Olympics made him the only male to have won medals in the —— combination.Thorpe was to peak in when he became the first person to win six gold medals at one world championships, setting three world records and helping Australia top the medal tally at a global meet for the first time since In this period, he was named Swimming World Swimmer of the Year three times.[7][8][4]
Pan Pacific Championships
The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships were held in August at Sydney Olympic Park, and were viewed as a rehearsal for the Summer Olympics to be held in the same venue.
With Thorpe expected to deliver world records at his first international meet in Sydney, the event was shown live on Australian television for the first time. The opening night saw him pitted against Hackett and South Africa's Ryk Neethling in the &#;m freestyle final.[59] The trio reached the &#;m mark in a group, on world record pace, before Thorpe broke away, recording a split time &#;s ahead of world-record pace at &#;m.
He extended his lead to four body lengths by the &#;m mark and finished in a time of 3&#;min &#;s, cutting almost two seconds from the world record,[4][53][60] and covering the second half in almost the same time as the first.[61][62] Talbot reacted to the performance by dubbing Thorpe as "the greatest swimmer we've [Australia] ever had",[63] whilst four-time American Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, commentating for NBC, said "he went into a balls-out sprint at &#;– and I have never seen anything like thatI have been around swimming a long time and it's the most amazing swim I've ever seen, hands down."[60][63] A formula used by the International Swimming Statisticians Association to compare world records in different events gave his performance the highest score of all current world records.[64] Thorpe promptly donated the A$25, prize money for breaking the first world record in the pool to charity.[7][3][65][66]
Later the same night, Thorpe anchored the Australians to a historic victory in the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle final,[60][65] the first time the United States had lost the event.
Thorpe set an Australian record relay split of &#;s. Even taking into account a –&#;s for a flying relay start, his split time was almost 1&#;s faster than his individual best of &#;s.[61] It was to be the first of many occasions in which he would anchor the Australian relay teams to victory over the Americans, with splits consistently faster than his equivalent individual times.[67] The following night, in the semi-finals of the &#;m freestyle, Thorpe broke Hackett's world record by &#;s, clocking 1&#;min &#;s.[4][68] The next day in the final, he again broke the record,[53] lowering it to 1&#;min &#;s.[4][69][70] He finished his competition by leading off the 4&#;×&#;&#;m freestyle team with Klim, Hackett and Bill Kirby to victory.
Their time lowered their own world record by more than three seconds, completing Thorpe's fourth world record in four nights.[3][4][35][71][72][73]
Immediately after the Pan Pacific Championships, Thorpe's management announced his signing to Adidas for an undisclosed six-figure sum, stating that he would race in their new bodysuit.
This presented a dilemma, as the national team was sponsored and wore outfits designed by Speedo, leading to months of protracted discussions and uncertainty.[74] To compound his commercial difficulties, Thorpe had an uncertain end to the sporting year when, in October, he broke a bone in his ankle whilst jogging.[75] However his performance throughout the year was recognised when he was again named as the World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World, and by Swimming Australia as its Swimmer of the Year.
In a wider arena, he was named Young Australian of the Year,[10]ABC Sports Star of the Year, and Male Athlete of the Year at the Australian Sports Awards.[3][76][77]
Olympic build-up
Thorpe started looking to add a third individual event to his Olympic schedule.
He explored his options by contesting the &#;m freestyle at the New South Wales Championships in January, which he won.[78] Thorpe embarked on a European FINA World Cup tour to hone his racecraft, but this was overshadowed by comments made by German head coach Manfred Thiesmann accusing him of using steroids.[79][80][81] Thiseman claimed that Thorpe's physical attributes were symptomatic of steroid use and that his ability to exceed prior records believed to be drug-fuelled made his feats worthy of suspicion.[31][79] Thorpe's difficulties heightened at the subsequent German leg of the tour in Berlin, when a standoff over a drug-test arose when officials wanted to take an unsealed sample due to lack of containers.
After the standoff was resolved,[82][83][84] Thorpe proceeded to cut more than &#;s from his world short course record in the &#;m freestyle.[85] Given the context of the race, Thorpe rated it as his best-ever performance, ahead of his victories at Olympic and World level.[83][86][87] On returning from Europe, Thorpe faced further uncertainty until he was granted permission to wear his Adidas suit instead of the Australian uniforms provided by Speedo.[88]
With the past uncertainties resolved, Thorpe proceeded to the Olympic selection trials at Sydney Olympic Park in May He again broke his &#;m world record on the first night of racing,[89] lowering it to 3&#;min &#;s to earn his first Olympic selection.[4][90][91] The following day, he lowered his &#;m world record to 1&#;min &#;s in the semi-finals,[92][93][94] before lowering it again to 1&#;min &#;s in the final.[4][95][96][97] His attempt to secure a third individual berth failed after he finished fourth in the final of the &#;m and withdrew from the &#;m.[98][99][]
Summer Olympics
Entering the Olympics, the Australian public expected Thorpe to deliver multiple world records and gold medals as a formality; Sydney's Daily Telegraph posted a front-page spread headlined Invincible.[][] Thorpe cruised through the heats of the &#;m on the first morning of competition, posting a new Olympic record and shortening bookmakers' odds to 50–1.[][][] By the time the final was held that night, the pressure had intensified—the host nation had yet to win its first gold medal.
Thorpe led throughout, and although Italy's Massimiliano Rosolino was within a body length at the &#;m mark, Thorpe's finishing kick extended the final margin to three body lengths.[] This set a new world record of 3&#;min &#;s.[][] Secret tests carried out by the Italian National Olympic Committee prior to the Olympics later showed that Rosolino had abnormal levels of human growth hormone.[][] Rosolino aside, Thorpe had left bronze medallist Klete Keller fifteen metres in arrears.