SYDNEY, 30 March 2004 — Ian Thorpe qualified for Australia’s Olympic team yesterday with victory in the final of the 200 meters freestyle at the Australian championships, two days after he was disqualified in the 400m freestyle.
An Olympic silver medalist behind Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle at the Sydney 2000 Games, Thorpe won yesterday’s final in a time of one minute 45.07 seconds ahead of Grant Hackett in 1:45.61.
“I’m really relieved after that swim,” said Thorpe, who is also likely to qualify for the team with a top-two finish in tomorrow’s 100m freestyle final.
“I swam the race to make sure I got on the team, not to swim as fast as I could,” added Thorpe, who raised his right arm to acknowledge the crowd’s applause immediately after the race and breathed a big sigh of relief.
“I was going to be that far in front no-one could catch me.”
Thorpe, the 200m and 400m world record holder, will be unable to defend his Olympic 400m title in Athens.
The 21-year-old overbalanced on the blocks and fell into the water before the start of his heat in Sydney on Saturday and was disqualified under the one false-start rule.
Hackett and Craig Stevens finished first and second in the 400m freestyle final on Saturday to secure their places in that event for Athens.
Australia’s three-times gold medalist from the 1972 Munich Games Shane Gould led calls yesterday for Australian Swimming (AS) officials to find a way to include Thorpe in the 400m event for Athens.
However, while radio and television stations conduct telephone polls on whether Thorpe should be given another opportunity to qualify for the 400m freestyle, the Olympic champion has told the sports-mad nation to get over it.
“I’ve accepted that I won’t swim it. I think now everyone else has to accept that as well,” Thorpe said. “A lot of people are putting a lot of pressure on him (Stevens). “It’s undue and undeserved. What has happened is someone has made an Olympic team and instead of being joyous about it, they’ve been down about it.”
Thorpe was flicking television channels yesterday and he saw Prime Minister John Howard praising the swimmer.
“You realize at that stage that things have caused a bit of a stir. It’s wonderful to see how much support there is,” Thorpe said.
“Watching myself doesn’t excite me. MTV’s been getting a workout.”
Thorpe added: “I don’t like to admit it but it (the disqualification) has affected the way that I raced tonight.
Thorpe, Australia’s highest profile athlete, said his fellow competitors had been unsure how to react around him.
Australia’s 2003 world 100m backstroke silver medalist Matt Welsh won yesterday’s national final from Josh Watson while Giaan Rooney won the women’s 100m backstroke final ahead of Marieke Guehrer.
Brooke Hanson beat world record holder and Olympic silver medalist Leisel Jones into second place in the women’s 100m breaststroke final. “Missing out on 1996 and 2000 has made me a stronger person, said Hanson, a first-time Olympian.
