Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
“A Solitary Pursuit: It may be time for one of history’s
finest relay swimmers to stake her claim to individual
glory.” Time (August 7, 2000): 90.
“Thompson in Comeback.” New York Times (August 28,
2002): D6.
Other
“For Olympic swimmer, attacks helped motivate a
comeback.” Associated Press File (August 29, 2002).
Stanford Cardinal Official Athletics Web Site. http://
gostanford.ocsn.com/ (2003).
Ian Thorpe
1982-
Australian swimmer
Sketch by Paula Pyzik Scott
Athletes in the men’s competitive swimming arena
typically reach their physical peak just after the age
of twenty. Yet while only a teenager Ian Thorpe repeatedly
set and broke a number of world freestyle records.
His accomplishments left the sports world in awe, as he
repeatedly won gold medals in international competition.
The 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle swims
proved to be his personal domain. At age seventeen he
was the youngest man on the Australian Men’s Olympic
team for 2000. His outstanding performance left observers
to speculate that this was a mere glimpse of what
he might accomplish at the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
Thorpe was born on October 13, 1982, near Sydney, in
suburban Milperra. He is the second child and only son of
Ken and Margaret Thorpe. His mother, a schoolteacher,
placed great emphasis on the importance of proper
speech, and Thorpe took her message to heart—even as a
young child his articulation rivaled that of an adult, so
much that Thorpe, “… Seemed more like a 21-year-old
[than a child],” according to his second-grade teacher.
Thorpe’s father, a gardener, was the son of a semi-professional
cricket player, which some say is the de facto
national sport of Australia. Although some consideration
was given to steering young Ian Thorpe toward that sport,
he was righteously clumsy and displayed little aptitude
for the game. Ultimately he learned to swim instead.
Got His Feet Wet
Thorpe first took to the water as an eight-year-old,
out of frustration from sitting on the pool deck and waiting
for his sister, Christina, who was then a competitive
Ian Thorpe
Thorpe
swimmer. Eventually he jumped into the water spontaneously.
A special buoyancy to Thorpe’s body was evident
very quickly; he had an innate feel for the water, so
it seemed. Although he was hampered initially by an allergy
to the chlorine in the pool, he outgrew the condition
within a few years.
Swimming casually at first, at the Padstow swim
club, Thorpe’s talent was obvious to Doug Frost, the
owner of the club and a professional coach. Frost identified
Thorpe’s talent and offered him a spot on the club’s
training squad.
Thorpe went into training at the age of nine, swimming
initially less than two miles per week. He doubled
his workouts at age ten, and added a third weekly session
at age eleven. By age twelve, Thorpe was practicing five
times weekly, and swimming between 9.5-11 miles every
week. That year he began participating in the Australian
junior national competition where he won an impressive
nine gold medals at the championships in 1996.
After increasing his practice schedule to include
daily workouts, at age thirteen Thorpe was swimming as
much as eighteen miles per week. An all-A student at
East Hills Boys Technology High School, in 1998 Thorpe
was forced to choose between swimming and formal
academics. Swimming then became the center of his
life. He added intensive aerobics and endurance training
to his regimen and at age fourteen increased his practice
time to one session daily, adding a second daily session
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