Image: ianthorpe/Instagram
An enormous grin and a glint of nostalgia: that’s what Ian Thorpe shared with his followers this week, as the Australian swimming legend revealed he’d finally reunited with his 2000 Sydney Olympics medals, after a decade of them being locked away.
“I got locked up in a vault the other night — it was fun!” Thorpe wrote on Instagram. “Twenty-five years on from the Sydney Olympics, a lot of my friends still hadn’t seen my Olympic medals. Mind you, I hadn’t seen them myself for 10 years! 😬”
What started as a moment he “wasn’t sure [he’d] celebrate” turned into what he called a “special VIP tour” at Custodian Vaults, where Thorpe invited a small group of close friends to see his achievements up close.
“Friends were allowed to look but not touch my gold medals… which quickly became touch but not taste!” he joked, adding that his medals have now “found a new home where I have easier access to them (but not anyone else) 😏😁.”
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The event was organised with the help of Paul Cochineas and the Pallion Group.
In the years since those record-breaking swims, Thorpe has become one of the country’s most beloved public figures — admired as much for his advocacy, candour and queer visibility as for his incredible achievements in the pool.
Ian Thorpe: Sydney’s Golden Boy
At just 17 years old, Thorpe became a household name during the 2000 Olympics, where he delivered one of the most memorable performances in Australian sporting history. Over the course of the Games, he won three gold medals — in the 400m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, and 4x200m freestyle relay — and two silver medals, in the 200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay.
His first gold came on the opening night of competition, when he stormed home in the 400m freestyle with a world record time, setting the tone for an extraordinary week. Later that same evening, he anchored the Australian men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team to victory over the United States — a dramatic, world-record-breaking win that had the Sydney crowd on its feet.
Thorpe capped off his Games with another gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, again in world record time, solidifying his place as one of the most dominant swimmers of his generation. Across the Sydney Olympics, he broke three world records and helped usher in a golden era for Australian swimming.
Those performances not only made Thorpe the most successful athlete of the Games but also cemented his reputation as a once-in-a-lifetime competitor. His achievements at Sydney 2000 remain among the most celebrated in Olympic history.
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