Super-size me - it's a new look Thorpedo

Ian Thorpe

It's a national disaster for Australians. Their Superfish, the great Ian Thorpe, is getting fat.

Their five-times Olympic swimming champion is munching on hamburgers and pizza and slurping cola in Los Angeles, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Under the headline "The good life catches up with Thorpedo", the newspaper showed a huge photo of Thorpe sipping on a suspected cola, while his black singlet covered a paunch.

The report said the influences of Hollywood Hills where Thorpe, 23, has moved were less than disciplined.

Thorpe went to Los Angeles last month for a three-month refresher.

The report quoted an unnamed swimmer at the University of Southern California saying he had seen Thorpe only three times at the pool.

"Another swimmer said Thorpe had been at the pool the day before. When asked how he found him, the young man replied wryly, "big, fat and hairy"," the newspaper reported.

The journalists asked whether this was the end of Thorpe's magnificent career.

Mum didn't think so. Margaret Thorpe told the ABC her son was in full training and preparing for next year's world championships in Melbourne and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"He has told me he is training and he is very happy over there and that's what I'm going to believe," she said.

Also leaping to Thorpe's defence were the News Ltd newspapers, rivals of the Sydney Morning Herald's publisher, Fairfax.

The Australian reported that the Herald's sister paper, the Sun-Herald, had used an almost identical photo to the "paunchy" one accompanying a report saying that Thorpe's physique was still impressive - "perhaps more so than ever".

The Australian quoted Thorpe's American coach Dave Salo warning that constant media scrutiny could push the swimmer into early retirement.

"The Australian people need to back off and let the guy do what he wants to do or they will drive him out of the sport," Salo said.

The Australian's stablemate, the tabloid Daily Telegraph, carried a photo of "a trim, muscular Thorpe" walking near his Hollywood home the week before.

"This is the photograph that shames the critics of one of Australia's greatest Olympians," it said.

Some of the Sydney Morning Herald's readers were surprised at its choice of a front-page lead story.

"The tears flowed freely into my muesli as I read the heart-rending account of Thorpie's weight dilemma," wrote one. "Surely no other story could compete with this gem for gravitas."

Radio stations took plenty of calls, many of them sympathetic to Thorpe, saying he should be allowed to turn to sloth in peace. But others said he "owed it to us" to keep trim and set more records for his country.

The Herald backtracked a little in its next edition, running Mrs Thorpe's comments and those of a friend pointing out that Thorpedo was on a low carbohydrate diet and ate hamburgers without the buns.

"He doesn't drink Coke, ever," said the unnamed friend. "He doesn't like it. It would have been Diet and he would have just eaten the meat from the burger."

- NZPA