Thorpe confirms Olympic programme

Ian Thorpe has confirmed his programme of events for the Athens Olympics and will concentrate purely on freestyle events at this summer’s championships. The Thorpedo has discarded the 100m backstroke and 200 medley events following recent experiments with those events and will now swim the 100, 200 and 400 freestyle at the Australian Olympic Trials at the end of March. The proximity of the 200IM semi final to the 100m freestyle final in Athens has been cited as a major factor in the decision.

The world will have to wait until the US Olympic trials in July to find out what that other swimming phenomenon, Michael Phelps, intends to compete in.