never forget : the olympics are coming.

FIVE-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe has bombed out of the 200m freestyle, finishing 12th at the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide.

Thorpe, who only announced he was making a comeback 14 months ago, now needs to finish in the top six of the 100m freestyle if his Olympic dream is to be realised.

After a strong start, Thorpe faded in the last 100m, stopping the clock in 1:49.91s, slower than the 1:49.18 he swam this morning in the heat.

"I'm terribly disappointed with that, I had a really good heat swim and I thought I could swim a lot quicker," Thorpe said.

"The last 100 was a struggle, I'm not sure why.

"This was slower than what I swam this morning, probably the inexperience of racing in the last 18 months held me up.

"The fairytale has turned into a nightmare." (via)