IAN THORPE OAM

A two-time Olympian, Ian Thorpe AM is regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time. He won five Olympic Games gold medals, in 2001, became the first person to have won six gold medals in one World Championships. Thorpe won a total of eleven World Championship golds, the highest number of any swimmer of his time. 

Thorpe was named World Swimmer of the Year four times by Swimming World magazine and was the Australian Swimmer of the Year from 1999 to 2003.  At the age of 14, Thorpe, then a student at East Hills Boys High School, became the youngest male to represent Australia. His victory in the 400m freestyle a few months later at the 1998 Perth World Championships allowed him to enter the history books as the youngest ever individual male World Champion. The 400m freestyle event became his domain, with Thorpe dominating the event at every Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Swimming Championships until the 2004 Olympics. 

Thorpe was an NSWIS Scholarship holder from 1997 until 2007. He was a finalist for the NSWIS Athlete of the Year Award from 1998 until 2004, and – apart from 2004 – he took out the title in each of these years. An award named in his honour – the Ian Thorpe Outstanding Achievement Award – is presented at the annual NSWIS Awards Dinner and recognises athletes who have overcome adversity. 

Besides his 13 individual long-course world records, Thorpe anchored five Australian relay teams in world record performances including the unforgettable performance in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. His victories in the 200m and 400m and his bronze in the 100m freestyle in Athens enshrined him in aquatic sports history as the first swimmer to have won Olympic medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle. 

In winning the 400m freestyle gold in Athens, Thorpe defended his Sydney 2000 result, and he then won the race dubbed “the race of the century” against Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands) and Michael Phelps (USA) in the 200m freestyle. 

In 2007, Thorpe and his litany of achievements was honoured through his induction into the NSWIS Most Outstanding.