Ian thorpe first started swimming when he was 8. He basically got sick of watching his sister Christina swim so he jumped in as well! In the beginning it was hard because it was discovered that Ian was allergic to chlorine (he grew out of that by the time he reached eleven years old). He would bellyflop into the pool and then swim with his head out of the water.

His first carnival was at eight and although he doubts he won Ian said he had a great time so he decided to continue.
 
 He won his first medal at nine years old at a pssa swimming carnival. he started swimming backstroke originally but later on switched to freestyle.

In 1997 he participated in the national age championships winning 10 gold medals.

At 14 he was the youngest male to qualify for an Australian swim team. His first international event was at the Pan Pacific Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. He broke all of his personal bests in the events he entered and won a silver medal in the 200m behind Grant Hackett. his time was 3:49.64.

Then at the 1998 world championships in Perth he won the 400m freestyle and became the youngest male world champion in history. That race was afterwards considered to be one of the best races in the competition. Ian was behind his teammate Grant Hackett for all the race until the last turn where he got closer to Grant until he finally overtook him at the end with a time of 3:46.29. Also at the same meet he won gold in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

Then in April 1998, three months after winning the 400m freestyle at the world championships Ian was awarded a plaque in the Path Of Champions. His plaque sits with others of Murray Rose, Dawn Fraser, John Konrads and many others. He told the media "This is amazing!"

Then at the 1998 Australian Swimming Championships he won the 200m and 400m freestyle. In the 200m he recorded a time of 1:47.24 which became the new world record and he beat the world champ Michael Klim. Then in the 100m freestyle he came second to Michael Klim. With these results he won 3 places on the Australian Commonwealth Games Team and later on being placed on two relay teams.

At the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Kumpur he won 4 gold medals, one in the 200m freestyle, another in the 400m freestyle and the other two in the relays. One of the relays was the world record breaking 4 x 200m freestyle relay team.

In November 1998 Ian was named the Male Swimmer Of The Year by the Swimming World magazine. Also during the year Ian Thorpe was named the 1998 Young Australian Of The Year. Ian states that he is very proud of being Australian but even prouder of being named Young Australian Of The Year because this means he's not only being recognised in his sport but he's being recognised among other people from all fields, arts and politics etc.

At the 1998/1999 FINA Ian Thorpe did well and he also competed well at the World Short Course Championships in Hong Kong.

At the 1999 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships he won 4 gold medals. They were in the 200m freestyle in which he also broke the world record, 400m freestyle in which he also broke the world record, he was a part of the 4 x 200m freestyle relay which broke the world record and the 4th medal was in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay. Later on Ian was named Male Swimmer Of The Meet.

After the Pan Pacs Ian went to the Australian Short Course Championships in Canberra where he won 2 gold in the 200m freestyle and in the 400m freestyle.

In 1999 Ian Thorpe was presented the Sport Australia Hall Of Fame Sir Donald Bradman Award. This award is presented to the athlete who has through their example in sport has most inspired the nation.

He was also awarded the 1999 Male Athlete Of The Year at the Australian Sports Awards and the 1999 World Swimmer Of The Year voted by the USA Swimming Magazine for his second consecutive time.

Also he received the 1999 Young Australian Sports award and 1999 Australian Swimmer Of The Year but his all time favorite award was a bottle of Sydney International Aquatic Centre water taken from lane 5 after he broke the first world record in the new pool in that lane during the 400m freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships.

From then on it was full speed ahead for preparations for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. While doing this he went into another world record breaking spree.

At the Australian Selection trials he broke his own world record for the 400m freestyle and he also broke the 200m freestyle world record. He also set the 800m freestyle world record and to top it off he qualified to swim for Australia in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relay teams.

Ian Thorpe's next major event was the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Once his events started he certainly lived up to his reputation winning three gold medals and two silver medals. The gold were in the 400m freestyle, the  4 x 100m freestyle relay, the 4 x 200m freestyle. The silvers were in the 200m freestyle (he was beaten by Pieter Van Den Hoogenband) and the 4 x 100m medley relay. He broke the world record for the 400m freestyle again and was the anchor for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay which broke the world record while having an exciting win against the United States Of America! He was also part of the world record breaking 4 x 200m freestyle who beat the United States of America! to top his wonderful performance off he was given the high honour of carrying the Australian Flag in the Closing Ceremony.

After his first Olympics Ian Thorpe went on a publicity tour. Among the many highlights his tour was being on Friends and Jay Leno TV show, being a guest of the designer Giorgio Armani at his show in New York and meeting the American president  Bill Clinton and family in Washington D.C.

He was also named the Australian Of The Year for the year 2000.

To qualify for the 2001 Fukuoka World Championships Ian went to the Australian Open Championships in Hobart. There he broke the 200m and 800m freestyle world records which made him the first swimmer since John Konrads (1959) to win national titles in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.

At the 2001 Fukuoka World Championships Ian had a very busy schedule but that did not change his results. He broke the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle world records again winning a gold in each. He also won 3 more gold medals in the men's 4 x 100m freestyle relay. 4 x 200m freestyle relay and 4 x 100m medley relay. He also did the 100m but missed out on a medal as he came 4th. With his 6 medals this meant he broke the record of the amount of medals won at a World Championships. The former record had been 5 gold medals. He also became Australia's most successful world record breaker as he holds 15 world records.

After the World Championships he competed in the Australian Short Course Championships in Perth.

His next major event was at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane where he won 3 gold medals and 1 silver. The gold were in the 400m freestyle, 4 x 100m freestyle relay and 4 x 100m medley relay. The silver was behind Grant Hackett in the 200m freestyle.

He is now taking on a holiday in Japan. He went to New York first and was actually in the one of the World Trade Centre Towers but he discovered that he had forgotten his camera so he went back to his hotel for it. It was when he was heading back to the World Trade Centre Towers that the plane hit.