olympic swimming: thorpe - out

[jxyama]

anyone here follow swimming? (i'm a former competitive swimmer.)

ian thorpe missed making the aussie olympic team in his bread and butter event, the 400m free, for a false start. he has moved on and made the team in 100m and 200m freestyle but i sure will miss him in the 400m. he's only 21 - and he will have potentially two more olympics in him - but it's a shame... :(

i know there are some aussies here - it would be interesting to hear about the local reaction...

personally, i'm looking forward to seeing michael phelps swim. that kid is a freak of nature...

[gwuMACaddict]

ow... that sucks... esp cause of the technicality... (phelps was gonna school him anyway ;) :D )

[jxyama]

(phelps was gonna school him anyway ;) :D )

not in the 400m... ;)

i'm not sure which type of selection process is better. americans and aussies do the one-shot, fair and square deal where there's a meet and olympic teams are picked based purely on results.

japanese (as an example) also has a selection meet, but the results of that meet do not guarrantee selection. it's used as a criteria for selection but it's not absolute. (and there's always some controversy...)

i prefer the fair and square way, although gliches like this happen once in a while... but there's no "controversy" because it's no one's fault but thorpe's, in this case...

[Riot_Mac]

anyone here follow swimming? (i'm a former competitive swimmer.)

ian thorpe missed making the aussie olympic team in his bread and butter event, the 400m free, for a false start. he has moved on and made the team in 100m and 200m freestyle but i sure will miss him in the 400m. he's only 21 - and he will have potentially two more olympics in him - but it's a shame... :(

i know there are some aussies here - it would be interesting to hear about the local reaction...

personally, i'm looking forward to seeing michael phelps swim. that kid is a freak of nature...

I swam since I was six and just finished last feb. swimming in college. to bad for you aussies. the u.s. is going to kick your ass in swimming anyway. :)

[MatMistake]

ian thorpe missed making the aussie olympic team...

not really relevent, but my brother's girlfriend is ian thorpe's second cousin, or some relation like that. his family name was originally 'springthorpe' but got shortened to 'thorpe' when his ancestors moved from england to australia


sorry, I'm just in a random trivia type mood...

[macka]

It was definitely front page stuff (http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/27/1080330987483.html).

Ok, so he fell in accidentally. It happens and rules are rules. I reckon everybody in Australia should leave him be and get over it because it's rather slack to put pressure on that other fella, who won fair and square...

The Thorpedo's got plenty of olympic gold medal chances, cause he's so good at what he does. I doubt he's worried. Maybe a bit aggravated. Who knows.

[748s]

the tabloid newspapers were going off. suggestions that the second place getter, craig stevens, step down so thorpe could swim in the 400. thorpe had to say "get off his back" and leave him alone. he said "that's the rule, i'm out".

AND other swimming news today...........
Former multiple world record holder and Olympic champion Shane Gould has failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the women's 50 metres butterfly at the Olympic swimming trials in Sydney.

The 47-year-old finished in seventh place in her heat in a time of 30.61 seconds.

[Judy Season]

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Hi,Matmistake. You said that your brother's gf is Ian Thorpe's cousin. And I've heard that Ian got a new girlfriend. Do you know that? Is it real?
I'll appreciate if you can answer me. Thanks a bunch:)

[Judy Season]

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Wow, I'm looking forward to watching the Olympics' swimming games!
Go! Ian ;)

[virividox]

wow i guess this will help phelps out

[DJY]

Craig Stevens declared a long time ago - he wouldn't swim the 400 - but rather wanted to concentrate on his pet event the 1500m.

By the way hackett is saying he is up for a new World record in the 1500 in Athens as well!

So Thorpie will swim the 400. I think he is swimming in a total of six events.

As for him having a new girlfriend? Mmm I'd doubt that one big time.

[sjjordan]

Craig Stevens declared a long time ago - he wouldn't swim the 400 - but rather wanted to concentrate on his pet event the 1500m.

By the way hackett is saying he is up for a new World record in the 1500 in Athens as well!

So Thorpie will swim the 400. I think he is swimming in a total of six events.

As for him having a new girlfriend? Mmm I'd doubt that one big time.

I know that no one will probably believe me, but I'll say it anyway. I used to live down the street from Ian Thorpe. I grew up in Sydney, Australia and before we moved to another part of the city, we lived in Milperra, where Ian lived. I don't remember him at all, but my parents knew his parents. Kinda cool.

[acceber]

I was confused by the thread title, then I realised that it was an old thread. :)

You can check this link out about Thorpey at the moment. He is making headlines because he is avoiding making the headlines.

Thorpe denies he is in deep water (http://smh.com.au/olympics/articles/2004/08/06/1091732085476.html)

[DJY]

Thorpie wins the 400m!
And Hackett came second!
Much closer than I expected - so the 200m later tonight will be a real cracker with the four fastest men ever all swimming!


Thorpe, Hackett, Phelps, and van den Hoogenband!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie... OI! OI! OI!