Swimming: Thorpedo gunning for world's weapons

Ian Thorpe wants to be a United Nations ambassador, the one who convinces the world to stop making weapons and put the money into children's health instead.

The night he won his last medals - a gold in the 4x200m relay and silver in the 200m freestyle - he spent time on the internet and came across figures that suggested the two amounts would just about balance out.

When he later rang manager Dave Flaskas to discuss his night's work there was little talk of swimming. "We hardly ever talk about swimming unless he raises it because I guess the pool is like his office and when he gets home from work he wants to think about something else," Flaskas said yesterday. "He's amazing, incredibly mature mentally for a 17-year-old."

Thorpe dropped out of sixth form to focus on training for these Games.

"He doesn't like to do anything half-pie."

But he has an incredible thirst for knowledge, Flaskas said, and taught himself French to keep his mind occupied. He has now started studying how the stock market works.

"He's intrigued with the notion that news events can influence the whole economy of any country."

Thorpe might well be studying how best to invest the multi-millions he's about to make from international sponsorship deals.

Flaskas won't put a figure on what he reckons Thorpe can earn in sponsorships, but earlier agreed with estimates of around $10m. So he probably thinks it's more.

The pair are off on a combined business trip-holiday to the United States, Europe and South Africa in mid-October and will stitch up a variety of deals that will put the world's best swimmer on TV screens, billboards and the front pages of newspapers and magazines around the world.

Already Thorpe, American runner Maurice Greene and a Japanese soccer player have been identified by Coca Cola Japan as the "competitors of the Games" and Japanese viewers are being blitzed with ads carrying his image.

"They're very big on him in Asia," Flaskas said. "They're just amazed by his size."

But what impresses Flaskas is not just Thorpe's physical size, but his mental size. The pair met after Atlanta, when Flaskas was contracted by corporates to find 10 to 12 young up-and-comers who would be stars at Sydney 2000.

Thorpe was 14. Another chosen was Grant Hackett.

Thorpe and his parents liked Flaskas and kept him on as personal manager, and the pair now are more like friends.

Thorpe has also featured recently on US TV sports shows for ESPN and NBC, for the BBC in London, and been on the front page of the sports section in the New York Times, Washington Post, L'Equipe Paris, and the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time. They already have a deal with Omega watches, who also contract Cindy Crawford, Martina Hingis, Pierce Brosnan and Donovan Bailey.

Flaskas said there was huge relief all round when Ian won the first of his gold medals in the 400m freestyle, thus fulfilling the plan. Up to then he had five world record-breaking swims and a handful of medals from the world champs, Pan Pacs and Commonwealth Games, but not the best of the best. "This was the final thing he needed to do to achieve top-notch, win an Olympic gold. Three golds puts him in very elite company," he said, agreeing Thorpe was now the hottest property in Australia.

Before that race everyone was feeling the weight of expectation - except Thorpe apparently.

"What he told me was 'I don't feel the weight of the country on my shoulders, I feel it behind me pushing me along.' So he's using the public expectation and desire as a motivation. Every time he gets in the pool he wants to swim a personal best."

And not swimming a personal best in the 200m in which he was beaten by Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband was the only disappointment for Thorpe despite the whole country having a mortgage on the gold for months before the Games and all bar the last 20m of the race.

"Afterwards he was holding the medals and saying 'I'm just so lucky to be doing what I do,' Flaskas said. "He didn't care what colour they were."

The way Thorpe handled himself in defeat probably increased his value more than if he'd won a fourth gold, Flaskas said. Corporates worry about how their stars will handle defeat. "What makes great champions is the way they accept defeat. I was as proud of him then as I was the night before when he came from behind and won the relay."

What Thorpe said afterwards was that he had felt so good winning gold that he wanted every athlete to feel that good, and he hoped Pieter was. The crowd of journalists scribbling it down stopped to clap, an unheard-of occurrence.

Thorpe's sister Christina has a husband whose younger brother, Michael Williams, has recovered from what was diagnosed as terminal cancer. He and Thorpe are great mates, playstation competitors.

"When Ian saw Michael near death it had a profound effect. When things went bad at training it didn't seem like it was that bad at all," said Flaskas.

Michael rings Thorpe regularly in the village to spur him on. Thorpe has had only two brief contacts with his family since shifting into the team camp, for 10 minutes at an official IOC function after his medals, and again briefly after his swim in the 100m medley heats.

Thorpe told Flaskas before all this started that he wants to go to three Games.

Between now and Athens are the world champs and Goodwill Games next year, Commonwealth Games the following year, "and then you're into training for the Olympics again."

But Thorpe appears to be well into the swing of the Olympics.

"He's been having such a good time in the village I think he'll stay there. We might have to lever him out."