"Thorpedo", who called it quits Tuesday at the age of 24, became one of world sport's most identifiable stars, making him far more than just a phenomenally-talented Australian swimmer.

Thorpe lifted the sport's profile and constantly raised the bar through his sublime swimming technique and awesome power which earned him an astonishing portfolio of achievement.

The self-effacing Sydney native suffered from a chlorine allergy as a youngster, yet became the greatest swimmer of his time. Some have even hailed him the "swimmer of the century".

He possessed an imposing physique for a swimmer. He was an exceptionally large baby, weighing 4.1kg and measuring 57.5cm in length at birth and in his prime was a strapping 1.90 metres and weighed in around 90kgs.

But it was his huge "flipper-like" feet which gained attention and which propelled his famed dolphin "kick" in the final lap of his races, to blow away his opposition in a matter of a few mighty beats.

Before the 2000 Sydney Olympics German captain Chris-Carol Bremer made the startling claim that (Thorpe's) "hands and feet are unusually big" due to the use of human growth hormone.

The claim was ridiculed as Thorpe was among the most drug-tested competitor in world swimming.

Thorpe is Australia's most decorated Olympian with five gold medals at the Sydney and 2004 Athens Games.

He is the only person to win six gold medals in one World Championships at the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, among his overall 11 Cham-pionship golds -- the most won by any swimmer.

Thorpe picked up 10 Commonwealth Games gold medals, six of them in Manchester in 2002.

Since 1998 he dominated the 400m freestyle, winning the event at every Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Championships until taking a post-2004 break. He has also broken 13 individual long-course world records.

Thorpe won three gold medals in his home city Olympics in 2000, beating Italy's Massimiliano Rosolino with his finishing kick to win the 200m freestyle by three body-lengths in a world record, and then later that night anchored the 4x100m freestyle relay, an event in which the Americans had never been beaten.

Thorpe claimed the 200m freestyle Olympic record in the heats the following morning, but could not reel in his Dutch rival Pieter van den Hoogenband in the final with the Dutchman going on to equal his world record.

Thorpe switched coaches after the 2002 Pan Pacific Cham-pionships in Yokohama where he won five golds, leaving Doug Frost, his mentor from his early school days, to link up with Tracey Menzies.

In his switch-over he said he wanted to improve his sprinting performance in the 100m freestyle and drop the 800m freestyle from his schedule despite being the reigning world champion and record holder.

He claimed three golds at the 2003 Barcelona World Cham-pionships, but only a bronze in the 100m freestyle.

Thorpe then began a period of introspection where he battled illness and controversy.

His over-balanced and fell off the starting blocks in the heats of the 400m freestyle at the trials for the 2004 Athens Olympics, earning disqualification, and public debate raged over the rigidity of the team selection policy.

His close friend Craig Stevens, who finished second in the 400m trials, then stepped aside to make it possible for Thorpe to successfully defend his Olympic 400m crown in Athens later that year.

In the "race of the century" Thorpe overhauled Van den Hoogenband to win the 200m gold in a new Olympic record.

Thorpe had climbed the mountain again, but it was beginning to take its toll and after Athens, he took 17 months off from competitive swimming, skipping the 2005 World Championships.

It began a troublesome period for Thorpe with glandular fever knocking him out of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

In August came reports that he admitted to thinking about quitting every day and was struggling to find the motivation to continue.

For several months, he fled the goldfish-bowl existence of his hometown Sydney for the virtual anonymity of Los Angeles but when he returned to Australia with the aim of training for the 2007 Melbourne World Championships he found the hunger was no longer there.

Finally on Tuesday he pulled the pin and said he wanted to focus his mind on his future as a man, rather than as a swimmer.