Athletes will struggle after Tokyo Ian Thorpe on why he dived into a new Australian film

Ian Thorpe is still buzzing about Australia’s swimming success at the Tokyo Olympics.

“I’m over the moon with all the performances given what has been a very complicated preparation for each of the athletes,” he says. “We had the talent there and these Olympics were a chance for us to display it.”

But as well as the five-time gold medallist did with thoughtful insights into races, Thorpe found commentating far from easy during the Games.

Ian Thorpe agreed to executive produce his first film, Streamline, because it showed the more personal side of swimming.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“I become anxious and nervous for each of the athletes, so I actually squirm in my seat with every stroke,” he says. “I almost assume I can speak telepathically to them, trying to correct things ... just wanting them to perform better.”

Part of that anxiety was knowing what swimmers had to go through to get to the Olympics. Not just the high-profile stories, such as Kaylee McKeown having to deal with her father’s death less than a year before winning three gold medals, but the personal dramas and setbacks that were less public.

Showing the more personal side of swimming was one of the reasons Thorpe agreed to executive produce the new Australian film Streamline and have a cameo as a television interviewer.

Written and directed by Tyson Wade Johnston, it’s a drama about a 15-year-old swimmer, Benjamin Lane (Levi Miller), who is touted as the next Ian Thorpe ahead of the Olympic trials.

But there are pressures all around him: the release of his estranged father (Jason Isaacs) from jail; an embittered mother (Laura Gordon) who is driving him to succeed; a grizzled coach (Robert Morgan) who demands obsession and two older brothers (Jake Ryan, Sam Parsonson) who just want him to join their hard partying.

Benjamin, who everyone calls Boy, as in Andrew “Boy” Charlton, has to decide how much swimming matters to him before the trials determine whether he will be either the next face of Australian swimming or just another promising teenager who dropped out.

Thorpe says scripts have often come across his desk, but Streamline was one that struck a chord and felt authentic, as it reflected Johnston’s experience as a swimmer who represented NSW before quitting at 15.

“It’s a beautifully written story,” Thorpe says. “This was the first one that I looked at and went, actually, I like this.”

“The conversations we had were super helpful”: Ian Thorpe helped Levi Miller understand what it was like to be a champion swimmer. Credit:Bronte Pictures

What struck home was it showed the individual struggles every champion goes through.

“Everyone’s able to see the performance on television,” he says. “What you don’t understand is the backstory behind each of those performances. What Streamline can project to people is that each individual does have a story and there’s value in that. It’s not just about the gold medal.”

The struggles of champion Australian swimmers have been well chronicled. Grant Hackett and Geoff Huegill battled alcohol and drugs.

Among the female stars, Leisel Jones wrote in her 2015 autobiography that she felt self-conscious and miserable as a young teenager on the pool deck â€" convinced she was fat despite intense training and strict dieting. Having battled depression and considered suicide, she credits a sports psychologist for helping when she struggled during her swimming career.

Madeline Groves sparked a Swimming Australia review of the treatment of female swimmers and wider cultural issues when she called out “misogynistic perverts in sport and their bootlickers” who “exploit young women and girls, body shame or medically gaslight them” when she dropped out of the Olympic trials for Tokyo.

“It’s hard to get a grasp until you talk to Ian Thorpe and realise that so much dedication, so much focus, went into swimming”: Levi Miller in Streamline.Credit:Bronte Pictures

Internationally, American legend Michael Phelps has talked openly about dealing with depression and now uses his foundation to help others with free therapy and education. Even Caeleb Dressel, who won five gold medals in Tokyo, gave up swimming for a time in high school because of “mental demons”.

And Thorpe, now 38, has written in his 2012 autobiography about drinking heavily to deal with crippling depression. While he had to mature quickly when he became world champion at 15, then went into the Sydney Olympics as favourite to win gold, he says developing other parts of his life had to come later â€" moving on from swimming to become an advocate for mental health, Indigenous literacy and gay rights.

He knows some swimmers the country came to love in Tokyo will go through hard times after the Games.

“I have no doubt there will be athletes who do struggle,” he says. “Although athletes may appear as superheroes, they’re not infallible. They will make mistakes. They have their own particular kryptonite, which is usually around self-doubt about being able to replicate [performances] â€" the pressure that they put on themselves.

“To have a high at becoming an Olympic champion there has to be equal low ... That’s what athletes deal with and that’s what we all deal with in life. But we’re better prepared than what we had been previously to be able to deal with that.”

Thorpe believes the pandemic has forced many of us â€" not just high-profile athletes such as US gymnast Simone Biles and tennis champion Naomi Osaka â€" to reflect on the importance of our mental health.

“A lot of the things that we do, whether it be work or what we enjoy socially or travel â€" whatever it may be â€" may actually mask some of the problems that we may be facing,” he says. “And it’s made each of us actually stand up and acknowledge that each of us are flawed individuals.”

Thorpe says executive producing Streamline meant helping prepare Miller so he looked like a real swimmer, with rising star Sam Short doubling for him in some scenes. He also took an interest in financing and distribution.

Miller, best known for Red Dog: True Blue and Jasper Jones, says Thorpe was particularly helpful in understanding a swimmer’s mindset and practical details such as how to stand on the blocks and dive in convincingly.

“He was absolutely lovely,” he says. “The conversations we had were super helpful.”

The 18-year-old, who has just finished playing a young solder heading off to the World War I battlefield in Australian film Before Dawn, says it took time to understand how obsessed champion swimmers need to be.

“A few of my friends did swimming when they were younger, so I spoke to them,” he says. “But it’s hard to get a grasp until you talk to Ian Thorpe and realise that so much dedication, so much focus, went into swimming.”

Johnston, a 30-year-old writer-director based in Los Angeles who makes short films, commercials and music videos, was a competitive swimmer growing up in Albury. “It was my life and my first real passion,” he says. “Ian Thorpe was my hero growing up.”

But after getting up at 4.30am to swim five mornings a week before school and representing the state, Johnston “flamed out” at 15.

“I quit the moment my mum considered me old enough to make the decision for myself,” he says. “That was a painful thing. I blocked the sport out of my mind for more than 10 years before I started writing the script. Swimming was this cold dark thing that I’d failed at ...

“It got too competitive and it was too time-consuming and I was late to grow, so I could tell I was slipping and I wasn’t going to compete at the highest level.”

Johnston says he felt lucky Miller threw himself “200 per cent” into the role and was thrilled to work with Thorpe.

“He spent hours on the phone with Levi, just talking to him about the psychology of preparing to perform as a swimmer at this level â€" the focus, the dedication, the sacrifice that’s needed. When Levi showed up on set, he was completely convincing as an elite swimmer.”

Johnston has just finished the script for his next film, The Magpie, a family drama and psychological thriller about a young Australian songwriter navigating the dark side of the music industry in Los Angeles.

Having really enjoyed working on Streamline, Thorpe is looking to get more involved in film. “I’m friends with a number of actors and I have a certain understanding of the world,” he says. “I love being on set. I love the contribution that everyone makes as a part of a production.

“So I’d be up to creating something again, but it would have to be the right script or the right production.”

But don’t expect a Thorpie bio-pic any time soon.

“I have no issue with that and I’d be happy to work on it,” he says. “But it’s probably a 10-year project, not a next year project.”

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Streamline opens in cinemas that are open on September 2. It then streams on Stan, which is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead, from September 16.

MAKING A SPLASH: Dive into these swimming films

Dawn! (1979) Bronwyn Mackay-Payne stars in a bio-pic of Dawn Fraser.

Swimming Upstream (2003) Bio-pic of swimmer Tony Fingleton starring Jesse Spencer.

The Swimmer (1968) Burt Lancaster plays a man who swims home via backyard pools.

On a Clear Day (2005) A laid-off dockyard worker (Peter Mullan) aims to swim the English Channel.

Against the Current (2009) A troubled writer (Joseph Fiennes) sets out to swim along the Hudson River.

Pride (2007) A Philadelphia coach (Terrence Howard) forms an all-black swimming team in 1974.

No Breathing (2013) South Korean drama about a former star swimmer (Seo In-guk) making a comeback.

Ian Thorpe: The Swimmer (2012) Documentary by Gregor Jordan on Thorpie’s return to competitive swimming.

Head Above Water (2021) Docuseries â€" also featuring Thorpie â€" about Australian swimmers preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

Email the writer at gmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox

Garry Maddox is a Senior Writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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