Ian Thorpe has left it a year too late, says Denis Cotterell

Leave it to legendary coach Denis Cotterell of Grant Hackett and Sun Yang to say what many have thought, that Ian Thorpe is too late with his comeback. Via The Australian.

“”He’s trying to pack into a year what in reality is a two-year assignment. No matter how good you are … he’s been out of swimming for nearly six years and that’s a long lay off. You can stay fit and healthy but that’s a lot different from having a competitive edge at the top level of the game.”

(Ian Thorpe is trying to be realistic too, it is more the media that has gone mad)

Only hope for Thorpe is his ‘inner-swimmer’ …

Cotterell maintains that Thorpe’s greatest ally could be his inner-swimmer resurfacing in the final three months of preparation ahead of the trials. “He won’t improve in a basic linear type way because he has a deep swimming background and hopefully that can kick in fast and thrust him up several levels,” he said.

“But he is also up against a good depth of senior swimmers and a great young bunch coming through. I don’t see age as a factor, the real factor is he has probably underestimated the time needed to reach the pinnacle again.”