Ian Thorpe will need to swim faster than ever before to make London 2012 Olympics

It’s one of the most eagerly anticipated comebacks of the year, certainly in swimming circles, and quite possibly in sport generally.
After five years out of the water Ian Thorpe makes his competitive swimming return at the Singapore leg of the Fina World Cup tour, with a plethora of interested spectators eager to see what sort of shape he is in and to assess whether he can be a contender in London next year.
Having missed the 2006 Commonwealth Games through illness, Thorpe hasn’t been seen in international waters since the Athens Olympics, a competition where he cemented his place as a great of the sport by defending his 400m freestyle crown and adding the 200m freestyle title that had eluded him at a home Games in 2000.
For good measure he also picked up bronze in the 100m freestyle in Athens and it is on the shorter events that his comeback has been focused.