Swimming: Ready, steady - and Thorpe is off

By DAVID LEGGAT

ATHENS - It took a while before the P question was asked when a clutch of Australia's finest swimmers lined up in the blocks at the first big media conference of the Olympics last night.

And when it came, Ian Thorpe was ready.

"Michael Phelps is an exceptional athlete. He will have a very successful Games."

With that sort of straight bat, Thorpe could be opening for the Australian cricket team.

The spectre of American hero Phelps dominating the swim meet in Athens looms large. There is a prospect of the 19-year-old from Baltimore winning eight gold medals.

That would surpass the seemingly un-eclipsible mark of seven set by Mark Spitz at Munich 32 years ago.

If anyone in the cramped, sweaty room expected 21-year-old multi world and Olympic champion Thorpe to wax lyrical about his rival they were wrong. Credit where it was due, nothing more nor less seemed to be the ace Australian's position.

"For me to look at one competitor is not doing justice to the other athletes in the event," he added.

The pair will clash once in individual events, the 200m freestyle. Thorpe owns the world record at 1m 44.06s, one of two he holds going into the Games.

Indeed, he has achieved six of the seven quickest swims over the distance.

Phelps is also having a crack at two butterfly events, the two individual medley disciplines he dominates with an iron grip and three relays.

Thorpe is looking at six - three freestyle and three relays.

Thorpe does not give much away. His shaven-headed colleague, world 1500m champion Grant Hackett, is more expressive.

But even he, capable of decent one-liners, boxed clever when he was asked, pointedly, if seven golds - not eight you'll notice - was do-able.

"It's a very difficult thing to achieve. But when a competitor such as Michael Phelps comes along, it almost makes it realistic.

"It certainly puts a lot of pressure on yourself. If you win six it will almost be a disappointment, when it would be a huge result."

Thorpe dominated the room, even though he was in decent company, with world recordholders either side.

There was the usual strange side-events, with questions coming in a variety of dialects. There was even a camerawoman you would have sworn was Thorpe's twin sister.

Missing was the seemingly standard "when are you getting married" line, although one woman did ask if he had thought of giving his 400m gold medal - assuming he wins the event he has dominated for six years - to Craig Stevens, his team-mate who gave up his spot to let Thorpe back in the event after his disqualification at the Australian trials.

"I haven't thought about it," Thorpe said.

"So you're not ruling it out?"

"I'm not ruling it in either," Thorpe added.

Australian head coach Leigh Nugent was at pains to play down the United States-Australia rivalry and any suggestions the meet would turn into a two-headed monster.

"We consider everyone to be competitive," he said rather unconvincingly.

"They [US] have the strongest team in the world. We've got a good team, Britain have a good team. There's a lot of other people out there other than red, white and blue."

No one was really fooled.

Phelps is due to step up to the microphone tonight.

* New Zealand cranked up their men's hockey preparations with a creditable 2-2 draw against Pakistan last night.

In an improved showing from Monday's 3-2 loss to Korea, ranked fourth in the world, New Zealand kept pace with fifth-ranked Pakistan thanks to goals from Phillip Burrows and David Kosoof.

New Zealand led 1-0 at halftime. Their final warm-up match is against Germany tomorrow.