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Thorpe decides to plunge into... life

Thorpe was unusual, and not just because of his size, writes Rohit Brijnath

LOOKING AHEAD: For Ian Thorpe, one journey has ended and the other has begun. — Photo: AP

It was inevitable that when this career, so precise, so graceful, was over, like always, its finish would be timed. Ian Thorpe's life has been lived, and measured, and evaluated by the clock, and so why should the end be any different.

To the times that defined him, like 4.17 a.m. (which when he awoke everyday), and 1.44.06 (his 200m world record), we can now add 2.53 p.m. It was then, on Sunday, that Thorpe decided his career had reached a finish line. And only a swimmer would remember the time.

If we will miss this aquatic god, Poseidon in a wetsuit, then he will not miss the water. Alexander Popov once said: "While I'm swimming, I sing songs in my mind" and indeed few pursuits are as solitary and confining. In practice, there is no mirror like the weightlifter has, no opponent to spar with like the boxer has. There is only the bottom of the pool, and a black line as lonely as the swimmer. Eventually Thorpe knew it was time to come up for air.

Restless soul

His retirement on Tuesday was not surprising, and it was. He has not contested a major meet since the Athens Olympics, he has been ill, put on weight, gone to America, his uneven existence hinting at a restless soul. He said, "I started to look at myself, not just as a swimmer, but as a person," and when he figured swimming, for once, was not top of his priorities, the curtain began to fall.

Still, his bravery is astonishing for athletes are loath to farewell the arena, addicted to applause and compromised by grand paycheques. Walking away is costly, and frightening, for the athlete is prisoner of his craft, he knows little else, he has often not even finished school, and so he will often prolong his entrance into the real world.

Thorpe conceded to the "fear" that preceded his decision for swimming was his "security blanket," but also confessed to an excitement at the "prospect of other things," searching as he is for a life with more balance. He has five Olympic golds (eight medals in all), 11 World titles, 22 World records, four World swimmer of the year titles. At 24 he understood he has lived life fully, yet in a way not at all.

Always Thorpe has been unusual, and not just because of his size (17-feet). Australians adored him but occasionally were bemused by him, for he talked softly and designed jewellery. Once told he was not in the best lane for a final, he said: "There is water in every lane, so it is ok."

Here was a hero for the ages, expected to win the 200m at Sydney 2000 then losing, but gracious enough to joke with his conqueror Pieter van den Hogenband. As he once said: "For myself, losing is not coming second. It's getting out of the water knowing you could have done better. For myself, I have won every race I've been in."

Vintage stuff

Most of all, Thorpe was fast. My first sight of him came at the 2000 Olympics, trailing the last American in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Then, as if he'd turned on some outboard motor in his soul, he surged, the crowd howling in part-praise, part-disbelief, and when he touched home first, that most bizarre of things occurred which only the exceptional athlete can do. I felt moved.

Thorpe did not win because of his height (Popov was taller), or his feet (which ensured a stupendous kick), but because he was driven. And that drive has dissipated. Fans may feel bereft, believing he had one more Olympics to completely halt the argument on the greatest swimmer ever, but you sense Thorpe was never driven by that. To himself he had nothing left to prove in the water.

As he said on Tuesday: "I wish I wanted to swim half as much as people wanted me to," but he insisted that would be dishonest, for he would be fulfilling our dreams, not his.

Thorpe adorned the pool, but at 2.53 p.m. on Sunday the clock he has chased all his life finally stopped. And then his life started again. "It isn't the best time to be walking away from the sport," he said. "But it's my time."

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