Ian Thorpe holds three world records

Thorpe has been nominated for next month's World Sportsman of the Year title alongside Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher.

Had circumstances been different, Thorpe may not have been around to attend the ceremony.

On 11 September Thorpe only avoided being inside the World Trade Center when it was attacked by terrorists through a series of coincidences.

"A lot of things happened that I'm still sitting here today and I'm very grateful for that. It was a tremendous loss," he said.

He also admitted that even as a staunch Republican this year's Commonwealth Games will be an important event for him.

Honesty

Thorpe is hoping to compete in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008, but revealed he will only stop swimming when he no longer enjoys it, or when he has achieved everything he can.

Spitz won seven Olympic golds in 1972

One of those things could be breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven Olympic golds in one Games, set in Munich in 1972.

But Thorpe was honest enough to admit that it was unlikely to ever be broken, even by him.

He told Rob Bonnet that he was determined to keep his public and private life separate and admitted to feeling pressure to reveal more of his real self.

He also spoke about his start in swimming - being dragged around swimming meets as a boy before taking his first lesson at the age of eight, despite being allergic to chlorine.

"I used to belly flop into the water. I used to swim with my head out of the water, with a nose clip on and I didn't swim well," he said.

But he enjoyed it and persevered and used swimming as a way of building himself up after debilitating bouts of pneumonia.