A year ago Australia’s Ian Thorpe was without question the world’s best swimmer.
With 13 individual world records, eight world titles and three Olympic gold medals he was the biggest thing in the pool.
But all eyes at this month’s world championships in Barcelona will be on American dazzler Michael Phelps (20) holder of three world records and ranked in the top 10 in five individual events.
”I think he’s one of the most talented swimmers in the world,” said the ever gracious Thorpe (20).
The king and the pretender to his crown will cross paths in only one event during the eight-day championships in Spain — the 200m individual medley (IM).
Phelps is the world record holder in the 200m IM with a time of 01.57.4 seconds. The ”Thorpedo” is ranked just third and has yet to break two minutes for the distance.
Is the younger American about to dethrone the older Australian and be installed as the new golden boy?
Thorpe himself admits that record setting gets more difficult the more successful he is at whittling away at times.
Consider his performance in the 400m freestyle. He shaved a teeny bit off the record last year at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester — the ninth time he has set a new benchmark for the distance.
”It’s getting harder to reach the same improvements,” he said.
”I look at the kind of significant jumps I made at a younger age and, as you get older, it’s always going to become harder to make such big leaps.”
Phelps, who was just 15 when he made the United States team for the Sydney Games, is nowadays clattering over the top times just like Thorpe did a couple of years ago.
It’s a year since Thorpe set a new mark and some are wondering whether the lad in the black body suit with the size 17 feet is a spent force.
At the world championships Thorpe will be chasing seven medals, Phelps six, with the decider likely to be the 200m IM.
Thorpe doesn’t think that his best is behind him. And he doesn’t regret ditching long serving coach Doug Frost and taking up with neophyte Tracey Menzies. He remains as motivated and as cheerful as ever.
”I think it’s been wonderful for my swimming and hopefully that will equate to better performances in the pool,” he said of his decision to go with Frost’s understudy.
While Thorpe has found incremental improvements in performance more difficult as the seasons have gone by, the years have also brought the benefit of less emotional baggage.
Thorpie, as Australians call him, is sickeningly mature for someone who has only just stopped growing.
The key to his legendary composure, the boyish charm, the manly grace, is that he doesn’t take himself or his achievements too seriously.
”We prioritise sport far too much in this country,” he said. ”It occupies a large part of my life but I know it won’t in the future.
”The one thing I’d really like to do is find something I have an equal level of passion for as swimming. I’ll continue swimming as long as the passion stays with me.”
It’s that passion for the pool that makes endless public adulation and two-and-a-half-hour training sessions bearable.
Thorpe has also avoided the mistake that many believe fellow Sydney Olympics gold medalist Cathy Freeman has made: he’s not focused exclusively on his best event but consciously mixed it up to retain interest in the sport and hone every aspect of his competitiveness.
This is where the 200m IM comes in. It’s an event where you have to be good at breast stroke, backstroke, butterfly and crawl.
Rather than ploughing up and down a black line for 150 minutes Thorpe has found
fun in cross training.
”It keeps a few sparks flying while I’m in any phase of my preparation, and I really enjoy that and it’s something I think helps to keep my mind stimulated in the sport,” he said.
Also in contrast with 400m runner Freeman is that Thorpe’s abiding focus has been with his own swimming rather than with that of his rivals.
It’s said that fellow Australian Freeman lost motivation two years ago when no one looked likely to beat her. She took a year off from the track in the mistaken belief coming back to peak performance would be possible.
Watch Thorpe race and you’d think there was no one else in the water. See him finish and his eyes are on the clock not on his vanquished rivals.
It sounds trite when others say it but when Thorpe mouths the platitudes about inspiration they seem true.
For the record, here they are: ”My drive comes from my determination to be the best swimmer that I can be. I don’t limit myself by saying I want to win these medals or those world records.”
It’s a mission statement that rings true and means he won’t be worrying too much about Phelps when they share the pool at Barcelona. – Sapa-DPA