Ian Thorpe

However, Hackett defeated him in the 400 m. 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. Read Less

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 400 m freestyle final. The trio reached the 200 m mark in a group, on world record pace, before Thorpe broke away, recording a split time 1.86 s ahead of world-record pace at 300 m. He extended his lead to four body lengths by the 350 m mark and finished in a time of 3 min 41.83 s, cutting almost two seconds from the world record, and covering the second half in almost the same time as the first. Talbot reacted to the performance by dubbing Thorpe as "the greatest swimmer we've Australia ever had", whilst four-time American Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, commentating for NBC, said " he went into a balls-out sprint at 250 – and I have never seen anything like that I have been around swimming a long time and it's the most amazing swim I've ever seen, hands down." 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. Thorpe promptly donated the A$25,000 prizemoney for breaking the first world record in the pool to charity. Later the same night, Thorpe anchored the Australians to a historic victory in the 4 × 100 m freestyle final, the first time the United States had lost the event. Read Less

He would not swim the 400 m, claiming he would not have enough time to build up endurance for that event. This led many to see a renewed rivalry with Michael Phelps. Read Less

No longer allowed to wear the full-body racing suit (covering from neck to ankles and wrists) with which he set all of his world records – but are now banned by FINA rule changes – he competed wearing just the "jammer" (hip to thigh) racing shorts. He swam very well in the morning heats, cruising to 1:49.18, a time which placed him equal fifth fastest. However, in the semi-finals that evening he faded over the last 100 meters, finishing in 12th place at 1:49.91. Speaking to reporters immediately afterwards, Thorpe said, "The last 100 was a struggle, I'm not sure why. This was slower than what I swam this morning, probably the inexperience of racing in the last 18 months held me up. The fairytale has turned into a nightmare." In the 100 m freestyle on day 3 (17 March), Thorpe won his heat (the 9th of 12) but failed to break 50 seconds and did not advance to the semi-finals with the top 16 sprinters. Thus, his bid to qualify for the London Olympics officially ended. Read Less

Thorpe's success has been attributed to his work ethic, mental strength, powerful kick, ability to accelerate and a physiology suited to swimming. This led former Australian head coach Don Talbot to label him as "the greatest swimmer the world has seen". Although Swimming World labelled Thorpe's technique as "extraordinary" and "superior", Talbot disagreed, stating his belief that Thorpe relied on his kick too heavily at the expense of his arms. He also cited Thorpe's ability to manage his workload and his day-to-day recovery between races during a meet as a deficiency. Thorpe was known for using his trademark six-beat kick to power away from his rivals in the closing stages of races, the effectiveness of which was attributed to his unusually large size 17 feet.

Following his retirement, head coach of the US men's swimming team Bob Bowman—who also mentors Michael Phelps—called Thorpe "the greatest middle-distance swimmer of all time and the greatest relay swimmer I have seen". Bowman further cited Thorpe's ability to raise the profile and popularity of swimming, noting that Phelps' public image was modelled on that of the Australian. Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates stated that "In 50 years from now Australians will still marvel at the feats of Ian Thorpe". Dawn Fraser, the first of only two swimmers to win the same Olympic event three times, said that Thorpe was the "greatest freestyle swimmer in the world", and lamented that he would not be attempting a hat-trick of 400 m titles. Read Less