Ian Thorpe

The Thorpedo

Ian Thorpe promises to provide one of the big stories of the 2012 Olympics in London - assuming all goes to plan.

For the teen prodigy carried all before him around the turn of the Millennium has announced a comeback after for years away from the pool, one he hopes will end with him medalling once more at an Olympic Games.

A legend of the pool, the 'Thorpedo' is remembered as the fresh-faced teenager who took the swimming scene by storm.

With his giant frame - he would eventually end up 6ft 5in tall - Thorpe was soon pulverising his rivals in his favourite freestyle events. Indeed he won the first of 11 World Championship golds aged just 15 - becoming the youngest male champion in the event's history.

His 1998 efforts in Perth sparked a golden spell which included three golds at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and six more at the following year's World Championships - Thorpe becoming the first swimmer to achieve that feat.

He was the undoubted star of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester where six more title were pouched.

Thanks to such achievements, Thorpe was always going to be at the centre of attention at the Athens Olympics of 2004 and he duly won two more golds, including one in the 200m freestyle, a race dubbed 'The Race of the Century'.

After Athens, Thorpe took a break of almost 18 months from the sport but when he tried to return injuries and illness hit him hard and he duly quit - seemingly for good - in 2006.

Now, however, he is back and ready to write another chapter in his remarkable career. He has vowed to focus mainly on the relays, although an individual appearance has yet to be ruled out.

What makes his comeback an even better story is that many of his feats have since been eclipsed by swimming's new star - a certain Michael Phelps, who won eight golds in a single Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

Thorpe's comeback raises the prospect of the pair going head to head in London.

It is something the world wants to see.