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Ian Thorpe
Ian Thorpe, with three gold medals from the Sydney Games, needs two more to claim the most career gold medals by an Australian.
Born: October 13, 1982
Country: Australia
Height: 196 cm
Events: Swimming (100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 4x100m Freestyle Relay, 4x200m Freestyle Relay, 4x100m Medley Relay)
Olympic Records:
2000 Sydney Games: 1st 400m free (3:40.59, WR), 2nd 200m free, 1st 4x100m free relay (3:13.67, WR), 1st 4x200m free relay (7:07.05, WR)
Other Records:
1998 World Championships: 1st 400m free, 1st 4x200m free relay
1999 World Championships: 1st 200m free, 2nd 400m freestyle, 1st 4x100m freestyle
2001 World Championships: 1st 200m free (1:44.06, WR), 1st 400m free (3:40.17, WR), 1st 800m free (7:39.16, WR), 1st 4x100m free relay, 1st 4x200m free relay (7:04.66, WR), 1st 4x100m medley relay
2003 World Championships: 1st 200m free, 1st 400m free, 2nd 200m Ind. medley, 3rd 100m free, 1st 4x200m free relay,
The defending 400m freestyle Olympic champion as well as the world record-holder in the 200m and 400m free, remains the favourite for a freestyle double in Athens.
Thorpe, with three gold medals from the last Sydney Games, needs two more to surpass the four won by Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and runner Betty Cuthbert to claim the most career gold medals by an Australian.
Records tumble for the phenomenal 21-year-old Thorpe, rated by some as the swimmer of the century.
He is vying to become the first swimmer to win the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle troika at one Olympics and will figure in all three relays.
At the age of 15 he went on to win the Young Australian of the Year award and become the youngest World Champion in history. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Ian won four Gold medals, broke three Commonwealth Records and one World Record. After helping Australia win Gold in both the 4x100m relay and the 4x200m relay, he went on to win Gold in the 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle events. At the Pan Pacific Championships the following year, he repeated the performance, winning an amazing three Gold medals and setting four World Records.
He controversially was disqualified for false starting at the 2004 Olympic swimming trials, only to be given a place when third placed Craig Stevens pulled out.
At Barcelona last year he became the first swimmer to win three consecutive world titles in one event, his favoured 400m freestyle.
While Olympic competition stirs nationalistic fervour, especially taking on the might of the Americans in the pool, Thorpe remains detached. Thorpe would rather concentrate on extracting the best out of himself as an athlete.