In the swim

Tell 'em he's dreamin' seems to be the media consensus

For any of you who may have been living under a rock, the Australian Swimming Championships, which is doubling as the Olympic selection trials, gets under way in Adelaide this week. Now for those subterranean readers out there, this is a big event because competing for this first time in many years is one Ian Thorpe.

Since announcing his comeback last February, the Thorpedo and his prospects of making the Olympic team seems to have been the topic of everyone’s lips. Barely a day has gone by where there hasn’t been an update on his most recent performance and what that means in the overall scheme of things. But while people have been quick to judge his performances and even him personally, very few have asked why these alleged ‘poor’ performances keep occurring. Now while I’m hardly an insider in Team Thorpe, I do have some experience in matters aquatic so here’s my dissection of why Thorpe appears to be unable to repeat his performances of yesteryear:

·      Training: Thorpe claims to have been training since September 2010, at time in secret in as many as eight different pools communicating with coaches via SMS. I certainly hope this is true. I vividly remember when I moved to my first big swimming club the head coach (who has coached Olympians Michael Klim, Matthew Welsh and Grant Hackett amongst others), said to me that it takes at least 12–14 months before you see the results of training at that level. Indeed most of that time is spent building your endurance so you can cope with the higher intensity training sets that most benefit your racing performance. Now if what Thorpey says is true than that aforementioned period has only just expired, which means that only now will we start to see the results. I would practically disregard his performances from last year; from personal experience results in the first year training at a high level are almost universally rubbish.

·      Anatomy: Anyone who has studied physical education would know (probably more than me) about muscle fibers. Simplistically, there are two types, Type 1 (slow twitch) and Type 2 (fast twitch).  Type 1 fibres benefit sports of long duration, while Type 2 fibres provide instant powerful bursts of speed but fatigue quickly. As a middle distance swimmer Thorpe’s muscle fibres would be mostly Type 1. Good for 400 metre races, not so good for racing against sprinters with mostly fast twitch fibres to give them more instant speed. Although it seems that training can alter muscle fibre types, it would take significantly longer than a year to alter Ian Thorpe from middle distance champion to sprinting superstar.

·      Event selection: Anyone remember Thorpe’s forays into backstroke and individual medley? No, that’s probably because he wasn’t much good at them (relatively speaking of course). Over time and through training you learn what events your good at and how to race them. Not wanting to disparage sprinters, but more thinking and strategy goes into 200 and 400 metre events, and there is even gamesmanship during the event. Sprinting is more about mental preparation beforehand and producing instinctively what you have practised in training. One thing that is forgotten about Australia’s famous 4x100 freestyle relay win is that Thorpe, although coming from behind to seal the win, swam slower than Gary Hall, whom he touched out. Thorpe, even in his pomp, was unable to beat the world-class 100 metre swimmers, so will time and a prolonged break from major competition have anything?

On the basis of the factors it would seem Ian Thorpe will face an uphill task to make the Australian team, especially in the 100m which is one of the few men’s events with real depth including world champion James Magnussen, former world record holder Eamon Sullivan and perennial bridesmaid Matt Targett. But its not all doom and gloom however, as Thorpe needs only finish in the top six to qualify for London. A goal that should be achievable for an athlete as freakishly gifted as Ian Thorpe.

Of course it would be remiss to not mention what else is going on at the Championships this week.  Ian Thorpe is not the only former star trying for London with Michael Klim, Libby Trickett and Geoff Huegill all making comebacks, Liesel Jones attempting to make a record fourth Olympic team, Emily Seebohm and new golden girl Alicia Coutts attempting to qualify for multiple events. Also if you want to sound knowledgeable about swimming or enjoy distance racing Remy Fairweather is a name to make note of, as the 14-year old has been dubbed the next big thing in Australian swimming. Time will tell.