Ian Thorpe

The most successful athlete of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and 200 m and 400 m freestyle champion in Athens.

Ian James Thorpe (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the second most won by any Australian after fellow swimmer Emma McKeon. With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in his hometown of Sydney, where he anchored Australia's winning 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m freestyle relays.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics he won the 200 m and 400 m freestyle and took bronze in the 100 m freestyle, making him the only male swimmer to win medals in the 100–200–400 combination. At the 2001 World Aquatics Championships he became the first person to win six gold medals at one World Championship, and he set 13 individual long-course world records. Thorpe announced his retirement in November 2006, citing waning motivation, and made a brief comeback in 2011 and 2012.