Ian Thorpe gir seg

Ian Thorpe (24) avslutter sin 10 år lange karriære som profesjonell svømmer. Mannen tok ni medaljer hvorav fem gull, og er kanskje den beste mellomdistansesvømmeren gjennom tidene.

Her er et sitat fra Thorpes avslutningstale (Kilde: AAP):

"... So I'm looking at a next phase, and that next phase means that I am realigning what's the most important thing for me to do. And those important things, I don't want to rank or list them in any particular order, but swimming falls somewhere short. It's not at the top of the list, which has never happened before.

In another way of shortening this ... as of 2.53 Sunday afternoon I decided I wouldn't be swimming at the world championships. I also made another very difficult decision that day, that I'm actually going to discontinue my professional swimming career. "

Fra intervju med Greg Hunter, Ian Thorpe biograf (Kilde: ABC):

"No, it's the only announcement he could have made that makes any sense in the context of all the things he's been saying all these years about why he swims.

He's been saying from the word go, virtually from the time he was 14, that when he reached the point where he didn't feel he could swim any faster then there would be no point in him swimming. He's always actually said quite candidly that he swims for himself. In other words, to find out how fast Ian Thorpe can swim.

And it's not to say that he's not a patriotic person, but it's just been a consistent view, and he's said it so many times over and over again that for him to compete as an Australian Olympian and do ok in an Olympics, but far from his peak, just wouldn't make any kind of sense whatsoever.

So, he's obviously made the conclusion, formed the conclusion that he doesn't have the motivation or the physical wellness to swim as well as he can, and there's no other decision he could have made."

Les hele Thorpes farvell tale.
Les mer her, her og her.
Finn ut mer på google news her.
Finn ut mer om Ian på Wikipedia.