Alan Thompson Quotations

(We're) in such a tight budget - like we have had every year, ... (If) you can increase reserves at all, it's a feather in your cap.

With these young guys pushing him, if we could get a few more guys into 48s, that will push Ian along and I think that's what he needs.

We know what a tough competitor Linda is and we have seen what Libby can do at the world championships.

We have picked a team of athletes who we believe will benefit from this type of intense competition in the lead-up to the 2007 FINA world championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

When Thorpe pulled out and he (Monk) went into those two (races), he was thrust into the limelight and I think he has handled that very well.

I would expect that most of them will be swimming quicker now than they were a month ago because they are close to tapering for the Commonwealth Games trials.

If we don't win the first one, we will go on to the next one.

Celtic is one of the world's biggest clubs and this agreement sets the seal on an amazing month for me, what with overcoming Barcelona, winning my first cap for England and now signing this extension,

I have absolute confidence in our swim team and in our sport that we are drug free.

If it happens again, we would have to look deeper into it.

If that's what he and (his coach) Tracey (Menzies) think is the best thing to do then we'll be giving him every opportunity to recover well. I would say another couple of days might make all the difference.

He will be very disappointed not to be on the team and he is trying to anticipate what will happen.

He has a fairly nervous wait I would think.

There is no deadline from Swimming Australia or the Commonwealth Games Association.

Had he been in a different era, he would have been the one, and this time he has been able to stand on the stage in his own and get the accolades he deserves.

He certainly sounded better and it was good to hear him felling good about himself and his health - but we are far from out of the woods - I think the word is encouraging.

He'll be joining the camp around the middle of the week.

I think sometimes people think, 'We'll leave it for Grant to do'.

I think some of the guys prepared poorly,

I will probably hear more in the next day or so. His last tests showed an improvement and he has increased his training somewhat.

It is an extraordinary coincidence, you start to think there is more to it, but nothing has been found yet. If it happens again, we would have to look deeper into it.

I think he showed at the state championships (last month) that he's back ready to go pretty quick. I've got no doubt that he'll go pretty quick.

I think he can swim faster than at our trials and, if he does that, it certainly makes him a medal contender in the 400m.

I would like to see who is going to step up in the men's middle distance area.

Tracey was straight up with me and said she asked Ian to swim a series of 50m drills at a certain pace that was close to race speed and he wasn't able to produce the goods.

We have given them a couple of days to think about it.

We always use the benchmark from previous meets as a challenge to us, so with the results this week it certainly looks that way.

We understand Nine's concerns but we've guaranteed Grant will not contravene any broadcast rules and will be sensitive to the network's rights.

We don't want him running the risk of infecting any other member of the men's team and to give himself the best chance to recover.

Congratulations on holding the line this year, ... We appreciate the efforts your department has had to make to stay under budget.

And they have got an ability to coach and an ability to swim. Even in the old days - whatever they were doing - they still had to be able to swim well to be able to do what they did. I think they are going to be a threat to us in the coming years. It's not something we're not thinking about. We're looking at it.

I spoke to (his coach) Tracey (Menzies) and Craig and told them where they sat and now they just have to consider what they will do.

The rivalry that exists between Jodie, Libby and Alice will keep us going like we did with the boys in the early days.

Our aim is the Olympic Games and we are looking to have our best possible team at the Olympic Games in 2008, so we will give the opportunities to those people in the lead-up to that.

This is an exciting blend of experience and youth and those swimmers on their first or second teams will greatly benefit from being on a team with so many Olympians and long serving team members.

This job is well-suited for people who want to work hard. Some of the people who work here just love horses and some are interested in travel and tourism. But many are here because of the location in the mountains and the experience of moving to a western state.

They're not the sort of games we play. Swimming is a big sport in this country and people are interested in what Ian Thorpe is doing and whether he is swimming, and that's the reason it has been in all the papers.

It's not looking good, he hasn't been able to do much for months, he's just floating around.

It looks very much like a glandular fever or chronic fatigue kind of thing.

It's something I want to run past Ian and Tracey but Dave would be my recommendation.

It's not a drama and he'll race a few times on the west coast of the US. He'll also do some altitude training in Colorado.

It's difficult to compare between eras. There is a huge difference now between goggles, swimsuits, pools, lane ropes, swim caps and the physiology involved in training. But it's fair to say our (women's) team is a very strong team.

I'm not excited yet. It's still day by day as far as I'm concerned. It does appear as if he has turned a corner though, which is something.

I'm taking video evidence of a number of incidents over the last two years which happened at the Olympic Games, the world short course championships and the world championships,

In a country of 1.3 billion people, they have an obvious advantage.

He sounds better every day and he sounds more confident every day.

I am very happy that Grant is able to continue on with us and maintain his position because I think he did a great job last year.

I am very happy he can go on with it because he did a great job as captain last year.

This is a huge loss to the team.

The freestyle relay starts on day one of competition, while the medley relay isn't decided until day six on the program.