Thorpe ready to face his moment of truth at qualifiers

The man known around the world as The Thorpedo is about to face his moment of truth. Ian Thorpe's comeback from retirement has been so closely scrutinised Down Under that he's had to prepare in Europe. So when he arrived in Adelaide two days ahead of the Australian Olympic trials for London 2012, national media carried immediate news confirming he'd touched down in the South Australia state capital. And the 3,000-seat venue hosting the eight-day meet beginning today is expected to be at capacity on Saturday night if Thorpe makes the final of the 200-metre freestyle. For all his experience — his five Olympic gold medals, 13 individual long-course world records, his multitude of world, Commonwealth and Pan-Pacific titles — the 29-year-old Thorpe concedes he's facing something new. The prospect that his Olympic dream could vanish in a matter of days. "I'm nervous," Thorpe admitted yesterday, on the eve of the trials. "I'm not sure how fast I can go." There are 88 other swimmers competing for spots in the Australian squad, including 100-metre world champion James ‘The Missile' Magnussen, triple Beijing Olympics gold medallist Stephanie Rice and other former champions making comebacks such as Libby Trickett, Geoff Huegill and Michael Klim. But, most of the attention has focused on Thorpe, who may only qualify for a relay spot. Or, maybe not qualify at all. Thorpe mania prevails The trials will be televised live in prime time and, due to what the local media is calling ‘Thorpe mania', the crowds, media coverage and sponsorships are better than they "I know it's kind of eagerly anticipated," Thorpe said this week. "I've been preparing for this for about 18 months now so I'm nervous, just like probably everyone else." Thorpe will compete only in the 100- and 200-metre freestyle. He needs to finish first or second in either event to earn an individual spot at London, or finish in the top six to have a chance of selection as a relay swimmer. Asked if he could win the 200, Thorpe said he hadn't swum fast enough yet to be confident. "I'll be trying to, I think I'll have to, to ensure selection," he said. Thorpe has swum thousands of miles since he burst onto the international swimming scene as a boy with size 17 feet in 1999, then confirmed his talent with three gold medals — all in world-record time — at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. He retired in 2006, tired of training and constantly being in the public glare. His last major championship was the Athens 2004 Olympics, where he won 200 and 400-metre freestyle golds. Watching from the sidelines at Beijing, where American Michael Phelps won eight gold medals, made Thorpe hungry to return to the Olympics. "There will be a tremendous sense of relief when it happens," Thorpe said. "It would be comparable to me making my first Olympic team." His training in Switzerland has been financed by Swimming Australia, drawing some criticism from some other swimmers that the money should have gone into developing younger talent. Thorpe denied he'd been paid to swim and said he'd received funding like other athletes for training and preparing and was happy to explain his situation to any other swimmer. Spending justified Australia's head coach Leigh Nugent was confident that the spending on Thorpe's comeback was fair. "Ian can't prepare really in Australia — he just attracts so much attention, he doesn't get left alone," Nugent said, adding that it was reasonable to help experienced swimmers on their returns to international swimming. "I can only see positives in this and I think it would be a pretty ungrateful person and a pretty ungrateful Australian to not assist our proven best performers." Nugent has been monitoring Thorpe's comeback closely and is confident the champion swimmer will rise to the occasion. "He's probably in the best physical shape he's been in the whole preparation," Nugent said.