Editing Ian Thorpe (section)

===National competition===
Thorpe competed at the 1996 Australian Age Championships in Brisbane, winning five gold, two silver and two bronze medals.<ref name="abc career"/> His times in the 400&nbsp;m freestyle and 200&nbsp;m [[backstroke]] qualified him for the Australian Championships,<ref name=h96/> which doubled as selection trials for the [[1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Atlanta Olympics]]. Frost knew that Thorpe had no realistic chance of making the top two in any event, which would have meant Olympic selection at only 13 years and six months. He sent Thorpe to Sydney merely to gain competition experience at senior national level.<ref name=h96/> As expected, Thorpe missed selection; he finished 23rd in the 400&nbsp;m freestyle and 36th in the 200&nbsp;m backstroke.<ref name="h96">Hunter, pp. 65–70.</ref> At the end of the year, Thorpe qualified for the Australian Short Course Championships. It was another chance to gain national selection, as the event served as the selection trials for the [[1997 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)|1997 FINA World Swimming Championships]]. Thorpe qualified in second place in the heats of the 400&nbsp;m individual medley and reached his first national final.<ref name=h97/> However, he swam more slowly in the final and missed selection.<ref name="h97"/>

At the New South Wales Championships in January 1997, Thorpe's time of 3&nbsp;min 59.43&nbsp;s in the 400&nbsp;m was eight seconds faster than his previous personal best;<ref name=h97/> it made him the first 14-year-old to cover the distance in less than four minutes on Australian soil. Ranked fourth for the event countrywide,<ref name="h97">Hunter, pp. 72–73.</ref> Thorpe went into the Australian Championships in [[Adelaide]] as a serious contender for selection in the national team for the [[1997 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships]] in [[Fukuoka]], Japan. With a top-three finish and a specific qualifying time required for selection, Thorpe focused on the 400&nbsp;m freestyle after injuries to world record holder [[Kieren Perkins]] and [[Daniel Kowalski]]; both had won Olympic medals in the event. Thorpe went on to win bronze behind 16-year-old Queenslander [[Grant Hackett]], setting a new personal best of 3&nbsp;min 53.44&nbsp;s.<ref name=h97p/> The time was a world record for his age group and the race was the first of many battles with Hackett.<ref name="h97p"/>

Aged 14 years and 5 months, Thorpe became the 463rd<ref>{{cite web|title=Australian Swimmer Numbers|url=http://www.swimming.org.au/swimmer-nos.html|publisher=[[Swimming Australia]]|access-date=14 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206124840/http://www.swimming.org.au/swimmer-nos.html|archive-date=6 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> and youngest ever male to be selected for the Australian team,<ref name="andrews"/><ref name=s18/> surpassing [[John Konrads]]' record by one month.<ref name="ABC profile">{{cite news|title=Ian Thorpe: On course to sink Athens opposition|url=http://abc.net.au/olympics/2004/profiles/ianthorpe.htm|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|year=2004|access-date=14 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604000134/http://www.abc.net.au/olympics/2004/profiles/ianthorpe.htm|archive-date=4 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Frost said that Thorpe's selection catalysed his eventual focus on freestyle. Thorpe continued his good form at the Australian Age Championships. He contested all twelve events, winning ten individual gold and two bronze medals.<ref>Hunter, pp. 75–76.</ref> He set six Australian records in the process.<ref name="smh early"/><ref name="h97p">Hunter, pp. 73–76.</ref>