Already under enormous pressure as the headline act of this week’s Australian national trials, Ian Thorpe was forced to wade into controversy today over preferential payments. But there wasn’t any, he says, “Firstly, I haven’t been paid a cent, its been clarified by a number of people that what’s been reported isn’t factual.” … “There hasn’t been any preferential treatment, as such, given. There may be a higher cost because I’m training outside (Australia) and it’s not shared amongst a number of athletes, that’s it.” Read Reuters
But he is ready to go, a maybe Freudian slip midway through Ian Thorpe’s press conference in Adelaide was when he uttered “when” instead of “if” when asked if being selected this time would be more significant than on his previous two occasion: “here will be a tremendous sense of relief when it happens and I’ll be equally as excited about going to an Olympics again, so that’s what I have to look forward to. See The Sydney Morning Herald
He denies having been deliberately swimming slow times since his comeback to keep the off ahead of the Olympic trials. “I’ve been asked this by friends as well,” he said. “There may have been a period when I first started back, when I was hoping I might be able to do it (foxing). But unfortunately I have not had that luxury so frankly, no.” Read The Bangkok Post
So we’ll see, as he is says here on Adelaide Now: “FIRST meet shaved and tapered.” And as they write here on the nzherald: Thorpedo’s speed a mystery even to him, “I am not sure how fast I can go.”
