World Record Breaking Phase
| World Championship medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Short Course | ||
| Competitor for Australia | ||
| 1999 Hong Kong – Men's Swimming | ||
| Gold | 200 m freestyle | 1 min 43.28 s (WR) |
| Gold | 4 × 100 m freestyle relay | 3 min 11.21 s |
| Silver | 400 m freestyle | 3 min 35.64 s |
1999 began with heavy media expectations that Thorpe would inevitably break both 200 m and 400 m world records, given his continuing physical growth. The first opportunity came in late March at the 1999 Australian Championships in Brisbane, which doubled as a selection event for the 1999 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Thorpe again won the 400 m, but Perkins' record eluded him, this time by just 0.05 s. Hackett turned the tables in the 200 m event, passing Thorpe in the final 50 m to win Thorpe's title. Although both were outside Lamberti's mark, Hackett went on to break it the following night in a relay event. Thorpe finished the Championships by continuing his improvement in the 100 m freestyle, posting a time of 49.98 s, his first under the 50 s barrier. The Australian team then travelled to Hong Kong for the 1999 FINA Short Course World Championships, where Thorpe broke Lamberti's mark in the 200 m freestyle, the longest standing world record at the time. However, Hackett defeated him in the 400 m. This was the start of a three-year phase where Thorpe was to set his 13 individual long course world records. He led the men's relay team to unprecedented success in relay events, scoring historic victories over the Americans. Thorpe was to peak in 2001 when he became the first person to win six gold medals at one world championships, setting three world records and helping Australia top the medal tally at a global meet for the first time since 1956. In this period, he was named Swimming World Swimmer of the Year three times.
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