Crocodille dude dead, and now Ian Thorpe announced ending his career at the age of 24:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39267000/jpg/_39267069_thorpe300x300.jpg

Ian was awesome, I can feel your pain, Aussies


I can't imagine what comes next

Also don't forget the death of Peter Brock. I was playing a gig the day that happened and so we were cut off from all avenues of communication. Some drunk bloke told us, and I didn't believe it at first, but when I drunkenedly swerved my way home the next day, it was all over the news etc...

guy from the go-betweens

It's actually nice he got a state funeral

Cronulla monopoly

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39267000/jpg/_39267069_thorpe300x300.jpg


http://beggar.tripod.com/Crowe/TV/SouthPark/Show/sp24.jpg

maybe he will get into boxing now

Maybe makin' music, as well.

Maybe makin' music, as well.I have heard he's got a lot in common with our friend Dead

eh thorpe was amazing, he already accomplished what he needed to, its not like he's going out winless.Unlike so many canadian athletes i don't care to mention :(

well yeah, he couldn't really achieve anything else - I mean he holds like 11-14 world records. And the American dude was kinda beating hm recently, too. He is leavin at the right time, when he's still the king, although it's pretty wierd when athletes retire at 24 :erm:

yeah, when they do interviews during the olympics with older olympians i'm always surprised when they say '________ ________ won the gold medal in the 500 metre in 1952'- and they are younger than my parents. Especially gymnasts- the women are considered ancient when they compete over 25 (which is pretty rare). When Oksana Bayul (sp?) won the gold in gymnastics she was around 25 and they were marvelling how a very tall (5'6), older gymnast could have won. At least the thorpedo left early, would have been sad to see him swimming at 30 desperately trying to live up to his golden years.

yeah, when they do interviews during the olympics with older olympians i'm always surprised when they say '________ ________ won the gold medal in the 500 metre in 1952'- and they are younger than my parents. Especially gymnasts- the women are considered ancient when they compete over 25 (which is pretty rare). When Oksana Bayul (sp?) won the gold in gymnastics she was around 25 and they were marvelling how a very tall (5'6), older gymnast could have won. At least the thorpedo left early, would have been sad to see him swimming at 30 desperately trying to live up to his golden years.

yeah, but you know I find it a bit depressing, like that Ian is 24 and he says 'I am done, I have done it all' and you being older are like 'wait a second, I haven't even started yet!!!'

I am wondering what is he up to next. I mean whatever he will do, he will hardly beat his swimming achievements. I would like to know what it is like to live with thoughts of being only 24, knowing you can never top yourself again.

In this position I think I am better off, as I know I can probably still beat myself on 100 m butterfly.
Maybe you could write to him Alison and he will teach you how to swim ;). We could go for beers with him after lessons and such.

seriously nothing will get me to learn to swim not even a handsome world class Australian swimmer in a speedo. Hey you ever see those Ben Johnson commercials for that energy drink, 'Cheetah'? They are so damn funny. The guy asks him 'Do you cheet-ah?' and Ben grins and goes 'I sure do like to Cheet-ah!'. The low budget commercial has me sold.

seriously nothing will get me to learn to swim not even a handsome world class Australian swimmer in a speedo. Hey you ever see those Ben Johnson commercials for that energy drink, 'Cheetah'? They are so damn funny. The guy asks him 'Do you cheet-ah?' and Ben grins and goes 'I sure do like to Cheet-ah!'. The low budget commercial has me sold.
come on Alison, you ain't real woman until you can swim !
All kids back home have to learn how to swim, it is a part of PE classes in grade two! - if they haven't managed it already before (as they mostly already did).
What are you up to next summer?

On the other hand, today I have heard one guy saying: If God wanted us to swim, we would have been born with fins!

seriously, it'll never happen and believe me people have tried. People seem to get really irritated if you can't swim, i don't know why.I think its one of those things thats much easier to learn when you're a kid.

seriously, it'll never happen and believe me people have tried. People seem to get really irritated if you can't swim, i don't know why.I think its one of those things thats much easier to learn when you're a kid.I don't know, maybe it's because it is considered for one of the elementary skills, it's like that everyone learns how to walk, or everyone learns how to ride a bike, and such.
I am not irritated, it's just.....I am wondering why didn't your parents teach you that at one point, you know...

What methods were previously tried? My approach would consist of throwing you into at least 5 meters deep water and that's about it- if you don't come up to the surface in two minutes, I am jumping into the water.
The method works, trust me.

yeah thats so appealing for someone scared to swim:P Yes, my b/f uses the same line 'It's a fundamental skill!' I didn't learn when i was a kid due to ear problems so i had tubes put in and couldn't have water in the ear (well my parents were a bunch of coddlers when it came to health stuff to boot). My mom can swim but neither of my folks were interested in swimming, they just gave us music lessons instead. I don't like open bodies of water and being underwater makes me claustrophobic. However, i do love boats, go figure.

I was discussing this with a teacher who has the same fear and we both agreed that if we were in a plane crash we'd much rather hit pavement face first then crash in the water.

ok if you love boats, love lifejackets too.

i really don't think Jan's idea would work, so i don't want to think of you drowning in said 5m of water.


who knows, maybe when you have kids you can go to those baby swimming lessons and convince the instructors to teach you too :p

I was discussing this with a teacher who has the same fear and we both agreed that if we were in a plane crash we'd much rather hit pavement face first then crash in the water.well, the effect would have been pretty much the same, anyways.

Didn't Australia also get fairly owned in the World Cup?

Like doing really well then the rug was just completely pulled out from underneath?

Can't remember... too many games.

i was thrown in a pool head first once on my last day of work at a hotel (tradition or somthing) and i yelled i couldn't swim, but they thought i was just trying to get out of it. Someone had to jump in and get me cause i almost blacked out, so that way of learning wasen't really effective and made me more scared. I like how people can be terrified of spiders and people sympathize but when i say i'm scared of deep water people laugh and tell me to get over it and learn to doggie paddle.

I think thorpedo gave it away because he went to america and it opened his eyes to major depravity.

I'm telling you, he loves the co<i></i>ck.

Yeah we've been sucking at sport ever since the 2000 olympics really. We haven't won the tri-nations in something like three years and we lost the ashes last year. Farout we even lost the league tri nations.

But on the plus side Australia did pretty well in the soccer world cup compared to the usual result of missing out on qualification.

I actually don't cheer for Australia in sporting events. I cheer my homeland. But that is usually far far worse.

I think thorpedo gave it away because he went to america and it opened his eyes to major depravity.

I'm telling you, he loves the co<i></i>ck.I read he was into Kylie.

Australia is weird geographically.

You have stuff on the east side, on the top, and some stuff in the west. But besides that the rest of the country is basically one big fucking desert no one lives in, right?

I'd still live in Sydney. What a beautiful place.

Completely correct. Nothing major on the top though. Just a laregeish town on the coast by the name of Darwin. In fact there are no real inland cities. The largest is canberra and it's not very large, more of a town. We have one city on the south coast too. It's called Adelaide.

And the middle is not completely barren. There's lots of farmers and little towns. But it's stupid cause we actually could have very prosperous inland cities we just don't cause people are way too in love with the beach and crap over here. Especially cities 300 or 200km away from the coast. That'd be the sweet spot.

I went to the same school as Thorpe. He isn't awesome at all.

Farout we even lost the league tri nations.
And with the blessing of Allah you'll lose again this weekend.

no blessing needed, im quietly confident that we'll do it Fonzie

I went to the same school as Thorpe. He isn't awesome at all.

Instead I believe he uses the term "fully sick".

Completely correct. Nothing major on the top though. Just a laregeish town on the coast by the name of Darwin. In fact there are no real inland cities. The largest is canberra and it's not very large, more of a town. We have one city on the south coast too. It's called Adelaide.

And the middle is not completely barren. There's lots of farmers and little towns. But it's stupid cause we actually could have very prosperous inland cities we just don't cause people are way too in love with the beach and crap over here. Especially cities 300 or 200km away from the coast. That'd be the sweet spot.
Hmm, interesting.

Well I guess you don't have to worry about overpopulation! If people CAN still live there, then they'd be forced to if it comes down to it.

I always assumed those areas were too hot to be suitable for living. They sure look that way.