May 18, 2013
HE MAY be Australia's most decorated Olympian but every time Ian Thorpe enters the pool, he feels like a kid again. The same kid who grew up in Sydney, swimming with a nose clip and his head above the water owing to a chlorine allergy. "I'm exploring swimming, I'm exploring techniques - these are the things I really enjoy," he said. "I've started to enjoy it again and I have an enthusiasm that I can talk to young people again." Indeed, it was a relaxed Thorpe who turned up yesterday morning as the latest invitee of the Singapore Sports School's Lessons From The Champions series. The 30-year-old will soon be launching a business based in the Republic and serving the Asia-Pacific region. While he refused to reveal the nature of his venture, the five-time Olympic winner candidly discussed a range of topics, including his decision to retire from the sport in 2006 at age 24. "I'd lost my passion for swimming," the man known affectionately as Thorpedo recalled. "I didn't fall out of love with the training or the racing, it was just the whole thing - the business, the responsibilities, the media, knowing that I was being followed around constantly."

It was heralded by China's five-gold haul at the London Games - second only to a Michael Phelps-powered United States. According to Thorpe, one of the main reasons behind the emergence of Asian swimmers - as well as others with smaller physiques - is the greater ease with which they can turn at the wall. "For bigger swimmers, the cost of creating speed off the wall is very high because of the size of their muscle mass," he explained. "Smaller swimmers can generate the same frequency at a lower energy cost. "This has blown out of the water a lot of perceptions about swimming; it's making people rethink what the advantages are."
The constantly changing nature of sport also echoes one of Thorpe's personal philosophies. "Being a champion is recognising that you have a time when you are the very best," he said. "But you have to be willing to pass on that title to someone else; you're only looking after it for a small period of time."

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