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Swimming on a new wave: Ian Thorpe’s risky return

Sponsorship | Sport

Triumphant comebacks are few and far between. Whether in the world of entertainment or sport, for every Take That there is a Spice Girls, for every Kim Clijsters there is a Michael Schumacher.

Actually, I am hoping that my dismissal of Schumacher will be short lived once the new F1 season gets underway in just under two months time, but the risks associated with high profile comebacks are nonetheless well founded.

So it is with this sense of pessimism that we turn to swimming legend Ian Thorpe, who has today announced a shock comeback to the swimming world with a view to competing in London 2012.

At 28 years of age, the “Thorpedo” has been out of the competitive swimming arena since 2006, but has set his sights on participation in relay events in the 2012 Olympics and has not ruled out individual races. While it is easy to get carried away with the tantalising prospect of Thorpe competing lane to lane with the mighty Michael Phelps in just over twelve months time, there remains the very possible chance that Thorpe’s return will be met with little more than underwhelming disappointment.

Sportsmen and women devote such long hours to training and competing that it usually takes a serious injury to end their careers, rather than a conscious decision to stop. There remains an invisible magnetism between an athlete and his/her sport that reignites the spark of competition.

Four years away from any sport is a long time – just ask Schumacher – the rules change, the competition improves, records are broken and broken again. While that sense of renewed challenge might reignite the passion to compete, after four years the cobwebs can become too thick to dust off fully.

Thorpe himself sums up the dangers of making a comeback after so long away from the sport: “I have had an almost flawless career, and I put that at risk. It would have been a lot easier and sit on that and not do a thing. But there are still things in swimming that I haven't done, that I would like to achieve.”

Putting the risks of blotting career copybooks to one side, from a sponsorship perspective the opportunity to tie up with one of the sport’s all-time greats for what could still be a fairytale comeback is hard to refuse...as Australian airline Virgin Blue can contest by announcing their tie-up with Thorpe today.

"The partnership between Ian Thorpe and Virgin Blue will see Virgin Blue as Ian's official airline, supporting him in his training program for the [London] Olympic Games," the airline announced.

“We have been supporting Ian over the past few months as he began his initial training. We were willing to support him even when he was still unsure about whether he could get back to that elite level, as we believed his focus and dedication as a world champion would see him succeed in the pool," said Virgin Blue chief executive John Borghetti.

“It's also very timely that we're launching our new V Australia service to Abu Dhabi and Europe, as it will provide the international travel required for Ian's intensive training program. We're very excited that Ian will be flying to Abu Dhabi on Virgin Blue's first-ever flight Sydney-Abu Dhabi flight on February 24.”

Chris Hughes

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