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Recalling the day he knew for sure it was what he wanted to do, Ian Thorpe says he’s still in disbelief that he has made a comeback to competitive swimming.
Thorpe’s announcement under the glare of the media spotlight three weeks ago was one of the most highly-anticipated sporting announcements in recent history and the five-time Olympic champion says he still can’t believe it’s what he’s committed to.
“I really can’t believe I am making a comeback,” he told AAP on board his flight to Abu Dhabi, his training base for the next few weeks.
“Because when I started doing this I actually never thought I’d go through with it.
“That’s why it was so secretive because I really wanted to be able to turn away from this and no-one to know what had just been going on.”
Thorpe vividly remembered the day the thought of a comeback entered his mind and he made the decision to commit.
“I was flying across the Atlantic from Chicago to London a few months back and I just thought to myself ‘I wonder what it would be like to swim again’,” he said.
“And usually when I think like that I start thinking of all the reasons why I wouldn’t want to do it, but this was the first time I thought of a lot of reasons why I’d really like to do it.
“It really was the first time I saw the positives outweighing the negatives.
“So I just couldn’t get it out of my head.”
Thorpe, who is vying for selection for the London 2012 Olympic team, will base his training in the Emirate city before heading to Europe next month.
Asked whether he is only really gunning for a spot on the relay team or is in pursuit of individual glory he said: “At the moment it’s just far too early to tell what I may or may not be able to do.
“I mean if I make our relay teams it would mean a significant improvement because it means there’s another person that’s swimming really fast and it means the difference with possibly picking up some medals or not.
“We’ve now got really competitive racers in the 100 and 200 freestyle in Australia which is really good, because it means we’ll have a better team.
“I would be one of the older swimmers now which is weird because I was always one of the younger ones when I was swimming.
“So there’s going to be a really good combination I think.”