Quitting

I've been back in the pool a lot. Used to swim competitively back in high school and I loved the sheer rush of the 100m race. These days however, I have to bite back my pride going against those youngsters cruise past me doing their 35 sec laps. My only consolation is that not many of them have the endurance to complete 40 laps in 40 mins.



And then one of those young punks, Ian Thorpe announced his retirement on Sunday at 2:53am. While he is still on top of his game.



Check out this well-written eulogy by an adoring fan of the Thorpedo.

If we will miss this extraordinary aquatic god, Poseidon in a wetsuit, then he asked us to understand that he will not miss the water. Alexander Popov once said: "While I'm swimming, I sing songs in my mind" and indeed few pursuits are as solitary and confining. There is no mirror like the weightlifter has, no opponent like the boxer has, no landscape like the runner has. There is only the bottom of the pool, and a black line as lonely as the swimmer.

It takes guts to know when to stop. Especially in the cutthroat area of the 50m pool.