Swim that catapulted Thorpe from young gun to superstar

To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today’s memory.

Raising his fists to head height and scanning the Sydney crowd with a steely gaze, Ian Thorpe soaked up the feeling of becoming an Olympic gold medallist.

Cheering, clapping and whistling wildly, those watching on showed their appreciation for the 17-year-old delivering Australia’s first gold medal of the 2000 Olympics.

His victory came in the men’s 400m freestyle, an event in which he was the world record holder and the reigning world champion.

Watch the video at the top of the page to see Ian Thorpe win 400m freestyle gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics!

Wearing his iconic black, full-body suit, he scorched through the eight-lap race in Sydney in three minutes and 40.59 seconds (3:40.59), blowing his rivals away with his 196cm frame, 190cm arm span, size-17 feet and exquisite technique.

“I knew I was expected to win … No, it was assumed that I’d win. I knew that,” Ian Thorpe told The Sydney Morning Herald 20 years on.

“But I was an untested athlete at an Olympic Games. I knew there had been great swimmers who had come before me who had been really successful at world championships, who had not actually become Olympic champions.”

Thorpe was back in the pool some 60 minutes later, anchoring Australia to an epic victory over the US in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

He won another gold medal in Sydney in the 4x200m freestyle, before taking his Olympic gold medal tally to five in Athens four years later.