A little over a year ago, Ian Thorpe announced that he would end his four-year retirement with the intention of competing at this year’s London Olympics. That dream was dealt a damaging blow earlier this weekend when Thorpe failed to qualify for the 200m freestyle on Friday night, and sunk slowly to the bottom of the pool with a Do Not Resuscitate tag tied firmly around its toe after he failed to qualify for the semi-final of his last chance ticket to London – the 100m freestyle – earlier this morning.
Speaking at a press conference afterward – which has got to be a pretty shitty thing to do – Thorpe expressed his disappointment and his desire to continue swimming:
“I’m still swimming. When I started this I wanted to get back in the pool, I wanted to be competition and I wanted to go to the Olympics. I still want all of those things. I have missed out on what was a huge goal for me to achieve in a short amount of time. The desire I had previously is still there, I still want to swim.”
“It’s tough. It’s hard coming to this competition and really failing in what I set out to do. I’m disappointed that I really haven’t been able to race in a way that’s reflective of the hard work that I’ve done, but I am glad I was willing to put myself out there.”
Sad, no? Perhaps it’s time to go back to doing what he does best on dry land:
Title Image by Graham Denholm via Getty
