SYDNEY, Australia - Five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe has quit competitive swimming at the age of 24.

Speculation mounted that Australian Olympic swimming star Ian Thorpe, pictured March 2006, could announce his retirement from a record-breaking competitive career. [AFP\File]

"As of 2.53 on Sunday afternoon I decided I would not be swimming the world championships," Thorpe told a news conference Tuesday. "I also made a very difficult decision that I am actually going to discontinue my professional swimming career.

"I've had a great career. It isn't the best time to be walking away from the sport but it's my time."

Speculation has swirled around Thorpe for months about whether he planned to pull out of next year's world championships or quit the sport entirely.

Local media reports predicted that Thorpe would pull out of the national trials in Brisbane next month, citing the effects of a bout with glandular fever earlier this year.

Plagued by illness, injury and a lack of motivation, he hasn't competed in a major international event since the Athens Olympics.

Thorpe burst onto the swimming scene as a teenager and swam to 13 long-course world records between 1999 and 2002, becoming an international star after dominating the pool at the Sydney Olympics.

"I was catapulted into the international limelight as a kid," he said.

He had to train in California earlier this year to escape the heavy media scrutiny in Australia.

"I've reached all the dizzying heights of this sport," he said. "I've had a tremendous amount of success.

"I've also had setbacks _ the last round of them sent me to LA where I could focus on what I was doing with fewer distractions than I have here."

Thorpe said he felt his fittest, physically, in a long time while training in the United States and started to get "mentally fit," beginning to analyze his career and life.

"It's a very dark question for me. Swimming has been a security blanket," he said. But, "I haven't balanced out my life. I realized I had to prioritize other things and had to let swimming take a backseat _ I'm looking at the next phase."

Thorpe and American Michael Phelps are acknowledged as the world stars of the sport.

"Ian was an inspiration and a terrific champion," Phelps said in a statement. "He elevated the worldwide interest in swimming and was a great ambassador to our sport.

"I wish him the best of luck in the future."

Thorpe's last major achievements were his 200- and 400-meter freestyle titles at the Athens Olympics.

1

2