“Heading into Sydney, Ian was like Cathy Freeman. He had the weight of Australia on his shoulders in that first event 400m. Everyone wanted - no expected - him to win our first gold medal.”
“I was probably as nervous as him but I always tried to be Mr Cool,” Frost said. “We couldn’t have done any more, and that was the attitude we always had. It was a lot of pressure on a 17-year-old but we knew that we were there on times, we were going to be very competitive, but that pressure of course of being a home Olympics. He seemed to handle it well in the heats, but you just never know.”
“The Commonwealth Games followed the world championships and I improved even more and, with that, I realised Sydney was for me.” With the ankle healing, Thorpe headed to Europe in early 2000 for the World Cup circuit and results showed his Olympic dream was back on track, before what would be one of the most pivotal and crucial moments in his preparation for Sydney.In what was seen as an attempt to destabilise Thorpe, German head coach Manfred Thiesmann said: “A lot of people suspect him [Thorpe] of doping. There’s a lot of skepticism about him, but we can’t prove it.
“Why I swam that night was because whatever could happen leading up to Sydney I had to be prepared for it. My ankle, accused of taking drugs ... I had to be able to deal with any circumstance, any situation and be able to get on with the job that needs to be done.“It meant I believed in myself and my ability to be able to manage what was going on around me.”“I could see it did get to him,” Klim recalled. “But he was able to turn that into energy.
“You would try to remove yourself from everything but there's just some impracticality to it that you can't get around. It was in your face where ever you went or looked, and I just had to accept it and deal with it.” “The roar as we walked out was loud, but then they announced me to the crowd ... I've had massive cheers around the world where I've competed. I hadn't heard anything like this ever before," Thorpe recalled.
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