Undercurrents of a comeback for Ian Thorpe

Ian Thorpe realises it will be difficult for him at the age of 34 to compete when the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will be held in 2016 but he has started training nonetheless until he make a firm decisionShow more

SYDNEY // The Australian swimming great Ian Thorpe has not ruled out a crack at competing at the next Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, despite failing to qualify for last year’s London Games.

The “Thorpedo”, a five-time Olympic champion, who made his Olympic debut as a teenager at Sydney in 2000 and will be nearly 34 by the time Rio comes around, is back in training in Europe under the Russian coach Gennadi Touretski.

“I am pretty old but, to be honest, I haven’t made a decision about another Olympics,” Thorpe told News Corp Australia after a charity fund-raiser this week.

“In saying that, as you get older it does get harder but you can look at guys like [Aleksander] Popov and others who have proven you can keep swimming and competing into your 30s.

“It’s not something I have made a decision on but at the moment I’m back in training, so we’ll see what happens.”

Touretski was instrumental in the rise of the multiple Olympic champion sprinter Popov, who was in his 30s when he qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens but failed to reach the final of either of his individual events. On the women’s side, Dara Torres of the US was 41 at the Beijing Olympics, where she won three silver medals.

Thorpe retired in 2006 citing waning motivation. He made a comeback early in 2011, for a time training in Dubai, but failed to make the Australian team for London at last year’s trials.

– Reuters