Phelps says racing Thorpe will be ‘super fun’

Thorpe won that 200 final in Athens, with Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands second and Phelps third. But that was well before Phelps established himself as the world’s greatest swimmer.

The man dubbed Thorpedo quit swimming in 2006, two years after his last major meet and prematurely ending a career that produced five Olympic gold medals, 11 world titles and 13 world records.

He was working in Beijing as an analyst when he publicly doubted Phelps’ chances of breaking Mark Spitz’s record haul of seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics. After Phelps won his eighth, Thorpe was among the first to offer his congratulations.

“When he retired I didn’t think it was true and I didn’t think it was real,’’ Phelps said. “But he found a hunger to want to come back and want to do it again. I’m excited. Having somebody like him back in the sport is going to be a lot more exciting.

“It’s amazing to have Thorpie back. He’s the kind of person who if he wants to do something he’s going to make sure he will get it done.’’

The 200 freestyle is among the four individual events Phelps will swim at the world championships in Shanghai this month.

Thorpe wants to swim the 100 and 200 freestyle at the 2012 Olympics. But he wasn’t eligible for the world championships because he formalized his comeback in February, not giving him enough pre-meet competition to clear doping hurdles.

Phelps had some downtime after the 2009 world championships, saying he was more interested in golf than hard workouts. He had to be dragged “kicking and screaming’’ to training.

His golf handicap didn’t improve, but his attitude toward swimming did. He figured out what he needed to do to win more Olympic titles. After almost nine years unbeaten in the 200 butterfly, he lost three straight races at the distance to further sharpen his focus. Now he is primed for big meets.