Tough talk but spot on talk by the true great:
“After reading his quote when he said he thought he was going to fail, right there the trials didn’t even need to happen,” Phelps told USA TODAY on Tuesday after a completing a cross-training workout at Under Armour headquarters in Baltimore. “He was already set on not making the team, and that’s not the Ian Thorpe that I swam against in 2004.”
Read more here on USA Today
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I guess what Phelps was trying to say is that Thorpe had doubts about making the swim team and wasn’t confident that he was going to pull it off. In other words, wasn’t as mentally tough as he once used to be….and that’s true.
Something that he needs to work on for sure if he wants to get back to the top, which I’m absolutely sure, that with Thorpe’s caliber as an athlete, he most certainly can achieve. He just needs more racing experience and the confidence would slowly build up on its own.
It’s not easy being away from the sport 5-6 years, especially a sport as brutal and ever-evolving as swimming.
On we go Thorpie, a valiant effort, never a failure always a lesson!