Legendary Olympian, Ian Thorpe: An overview of his comeback performances – Part 2
After demonstrating his stupendous skills and determination towards the competitive swimming in the 100m Individual Medley (IM) on initial day of the Singapore leg of the 2011 Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) Swimming World Cup Series, Thorpe
was scheduled to compete in the 100m butterfly on the subsequent day.
Thorpe’s decision to compete in the 100m butterfly was originated from his London qualification dream. He realised that butterfly is the one and only event in Australian nationals, which lacks competition.
In Australia, the butterfly discipline is dominated by Thorpe’s old teammate, Geoff Huegill, who also retired in 2006 but made a comeback to his adored sport and won a gold medal in the 100m butterfly at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games
Therefore, in order to make his dream come true, the comeback king announced that he will not leave butterfly discipline off his chart and will compete in the same at the Australian trials for the 2012 Olympics.
Finally, on second day of the competition, Thorpe appeared before the starting blocks to contest with the world’s elite butterfly swimmers while the arena, which was stunned with Thorpe’s qualification effort, whole-heartedly welcomed him on the pool deck.
Thorpe was listed to compete in the fourth heat of the race. With his tremendous efforts, he occupied third fastest spot in his round, finishing behind his teammates, Christopher Wright and Sam Ashby, who ended first and second, with timings of 52.09 and
52.66 seconds respectively.
In contrast, the comeback king touched the wall with an effort of 54.09 seconds, finishing third in his heat and eleventh overall. His time was nearly 2.50 seconds slower than the fastest qualifying swimmer, Jason Dunford of Kenya, who earned his way to
the top of qualification list by producing an effort of 51.50 seconds.
Nevertheless, the crowd appreciated gruelling effort of the 29-year-old Australian in one of his non-major event. Despite of his non-qualification effort in the butterfly swim, Thorpe was contented with his struggle because he knew it was all he wanted to
accomplish in his least-strong style.
A few days later, Thorpe once again emerged on the starting blocks for the 100m IM at the second last stage of World Cup in Beijing, China. His effort in the IM at Beijing was comparatively slower than what he produced in Singapore and thus, he failed to
make it to the finals of 100m IM.
Thorpe’s effort was nearly 0.37 seconds slower than his effort in Singapore, as he posted a time of 56.70 seconds and ended ninth in China. He remained just 0.02 seconds slower from his former finisher, Masafumi Yamaguchi of Japan, who ended eighth and qualified
for the playoff by posting a time of 56.68 seconds. Furthermore, he remained 1.93 seconds behind the top fastest swimmer of the event and his team-member, Kyle Morgan Richardson, who posted a time of 54.77 seconds.
The intimacy between the timing of Thorpe’s two most recent IM performances was the evidence of his consistency. Once again, the Australian veteran expressed satisfaction over his struggle and showed no signs of discontent. His tremendous effort was highly
regarded by the aquatic crowd and most importantly by his coach, Gennadi Touretski.
In addition, Thorpe was now headed to compete in the 100m freestyle on sixth stop of the FINA Series while his fans were impatient to see his second performance of the tournament.
To be continued in Part 3.
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