Thorpe and Radcliffe out of Games

Published on Wednesday 8 March 2006 00:58

LIKE a zoo that loses its two rarest species, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games is a considerably weaker attraction without the big fish and the roadrunner.

The withdrawals of Ian Thorpe and Paula Radcliffe yesterday delivered a stunning double blow to the Games organisers. Thorpe is a national hero in Australia, and was expected to add a string of gold medals to the six he won in Manchester four years ago and the four he won in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. He needed just one more to become the most successful athlete in Commonwealth Games history.

Radcliffe was another huge star of the Games in Manchester. The loss of both robs the Games of the global attractions that this gathering, limited by the geography of the Commonwealth, can lack.

His eyes glazed and his throat croaking, Thorpe revealed at a news conference that he had been suffering from bronchitis and a virus since February but doctors were unable to diagnose the problem.

"It was difficult coming to terms with not being able to compete but in the end it was the only decision I could come to," Thorpe said at the conference, broadcast live on Australian television. "I'd struggled for so long to push myself to be at a stage where I could compete.

"But it wouldn't have been a good performance by me if I did compete. I would have done more damage than good if I had competed."

Melbourne would have been Thorpe's first major event since he won five golds at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Radcliffe, who won her first track gold medal in the 5,000 metres at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, had been the favourite in the 10,000 metres in Melbourne. She injured a foot during altitude training in New Mexico.

The loss of Thorpe and Radcliffe, just one week before the games open on 15 March, have diminished the kudos of an event that struggles for sporting credibility in a professional age. Melbourne will still be a fun place this month but therein lies the point: you'd have to be there to truly catch the buzz.

Melburnians are infatuated with sport. Particularly fond of Aussie Rules, they claim to be immune to the charms of rugby yet 35,000 watched a lowly Scotland side subside to the Wallabies in 2004. Any excuse to get out of the house, pull on a garment of allegiance and expose the kids to athletic endeavour and they will be there en masse.

However, for the excitement to reverberate around the planet, a Commonwealth Games needs an element of blue-riband class. These two losses will be felt acutely because of where they struck. Alongside cycling, swimming and distance running are two of the few fields in which there is enough pedigree to justify the term "world class" on this stage.

At the time of going to press, the Canberra Government had not called a national day of mourning. Though partly due to resilience, it's more about the fact the hosts will still clean up the medals.

No, the news will only dampen the enthusiasm of the outside world. If not a local favourite, Radcliffe was one of the Games' biggest drawcards internationally. If not in the same calibre of achievement as Thorpe, who won his five Olympic and ten Commonwealth golds before turning 22, she is that rare breed in the old empire: a world champion from a high-profile, mass-participation sport.

The Games will struggle to shake off yesterday's setback; Australia will not. Thorpe's old sparring partner, Grant Hackett, had already abandoned his Commonwealth ambitions last year when he went in for shoulder surgery, but Aussie pool stars are many and will give swimming fans dozens of excuses to go hoarse. As the Melbourne head of Channel Nine TV, Paul Waldron, put it: "Ian Thorpe was only swimming two events. It was only five minutes of 150 hours of fantastic broadcasting of Australians winning gold."

The pulling power of Thorpe's size 17 feet was illustrated by the reaction of his replacement in the team, Craig Stevens. Ironically, it was he who stepped aside to allow Thorpe to swim in Athens after the champion was disqualified at the trials.

"Unfortunately Ian being sick has given me a spot to swim, which I am going to take with both hands, but I would have loved to have watched Ian swim down there," said the awestruck Stevens. "That's going to be one of the disappointments of the meet, not getting to see him swim."