Ian Thorpe - Thorpedo Record Under Threat

Ian Thorpes record timing 3:40.08 seconds in 400 meters freestyle has been put to challenge at Beijing Olympic 2008 even before it started. South Korean Park Tae Hwans coach has announced to the world over Thorpes World record. May be Beijing will see a new World Record eclipsing Thorpes 3:40.08 time but Thorpes achievements in the aquatics looks far from others reach. The former freestyle swimmer Ian Thorpe was born on October 13, 1982 in Sydney, Australia. Thorpe has five Olympic Gold medals and six Gold medals from World championship under his belt, his eleven gold medals are the second highest by any swimmer in the world aquatic arena.

Ian Thorpe retired in 2006 after reigning over the aquatics, the man who brought Australia on the swimming map after 1956, winning the world Aquatic championship in Perth, Australia in 1998. This was just the beginning of his supremacy, after winning gold in 400 meter freestyle and 4x200 m freestyle relay. Ian Thorpes 3 minutes 46.29 seconds was the fourth fastest in the history of swimming which made him the youngest male individual world champion.But there are certain qualities of Thorpe- Thorpedo or Thorpey, which made him to rule the aquatics for nearly 6 years. His success has been always attributed to his mental toughness, work ethics and his physiology which is greatly suited to swimming. The greatest swimmer the world has seen former Australian head coach Don Tolbot believes and his thoughts matches with the US mens team swimming head coach, Bob Bowman who coaches another great Michael Phelps who estimated Thorpe as the greatest middle-distance swimmer of all time and he's the greatest relay swimmer I have seen".

The year of Thorpes debut in 1998 created a wave in the aquatic circle, after the World championship at Perth which grew further by the end of the year at Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In his glorious stroke at Commonwealth Games in September of 1998 earned him 4 Gold. He began with 200 m freestyle, generating best time of 1 min 46.70 sec, nearly eclipsing Giorgio Lambertis record by one hundredth of a second. He then came together for relays with Klim, Kowalski and Matt Dunn in the 4 x 200 m freestyle and broke the record of unified team which was set in 1992 by 0.09 seconds. Ian Thorpe later won Gold in the events of 4 x 200m freestyle relay and 400 m freestyle. In his 400 m freestyle he missed Kieren Perkins record by 0.55 sec but en-route he set his personal best in 400 m freestyle. After the end of the competition Thorpe became the youngest male swimmer to be honoured as the World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine.

The year 1999 would be termed as world record breaking year for Thorpe, which was also viewed as the preparation for 2000 Summer Olympic. He won 4 Gold in Pan Pacific Championship that heightened the expectations of the Australian media. In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Thorpe nearly filled the expectations but his rival Pieter Van den Hoogenband of Netherlands stunned the home crowd by winning the 200 m freestyle. Later he returned in full flow in the relays, Thorpedo won 3 Gold and 2 Silver in the course.More or less his supremacy continued before the Athens Olympics in 2004. The world champion saw his first casualty at aquatics when he was overbalanced and fell in the water during the heat of 400 meter freestyle that result his disqualification. A big debate started over his disqualification, under pressure Thorpe managed 2 Gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. After the end of the event Thorpe took a break from competitive swimming, he skipped The World Aquatics Championships in 2005. Thorpedo started thinking about his return in the competitive swimming 2006 but his attempts were drained by illness and other interruptions. In November 2006 Ian Thorpe- Thorpedo declared his retirement from the international Aquatic scene.