• London Olympics 2012

Thorpe's Olympic dreams suffer 200m freestyle blow

ESPN staff
March 16, 2012
Ian Thorpe used to hold the 200m freestyle world record © Getty Images
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Ian Thorpe, the five-time Olympic champion, has failed to qualify for the London 2012 Games in the 200m freestyle, narrowing his window of opportunity to compete in this summer's Olympics.

Thorpe once held the world record in the 200m freestyle at 1:44.06s, which remains the Australian record. However, he was only able to post a time of 1:49.91 on Friday, which was not enough to even take him into the Australian Swimming Championships final.

The day had started well for Thorpedo, who sparked excitement with a swim of 1:49.18 in the heats, his fastest effort since returning to action 14 months ago. It was suggested that he was not even operating at full gear, so better was expected in the semis.

However, Thorpe did not live up to expectations and was only able to finish 12th - leaving him to focus his efforts on the 100m over the weekend, in which he will need to place in the top six to book his ticket for London.

"I'm terribly disappointed with that, I had a really good heat swim and I thought I could swim a lot quicker," Thorpe said. "The last 100m was a struggle, I'm not sure why.

"This was slower than what I swam this morning, probably the inexperience of racing in the last 18 months held me up.

"The fairytale has turned into a nightmare. I'm really grateful for everyone's support, they've been great. Hopefully I'll be faster [in the 100m]."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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