To this day, 20 years on, Ian Thorpe swears he heard a noise. Standing on top of the blocks for the last heat of the men’s 400m freestyle at Australia’s Olympic swimming trials in 2004, Thorpe pressed forward ever so slightly, thinking it was time to race.

“I’m trained to react to noise,” Thorpe tells this masthead. “By the time I had realised, I’d already moved forward to the point where my balance is off.

“I didn’t know what to do. I fall in and I’m at the middle of the pool at the bottom just going, ‘what do I do’?”

Thorpe, who will commentate for Channel 9 at the upcoming Olympics in Paris, was the reigning 400m freestyle Olympic champion and had won a gold medal in the very same lane in his home pool four years earlier. He knew a false start meant automatic disqualification.

There was utter disbelief on pool deck at the Sydney Aquatic Centre on a quiet Saturday morning as Thorpe casually, yet sheepishly, walked back to the blocks.

“I didn’t disqualify him. He disqualified himself,” says 88-year-old John Keppie, the referee who delivered Thorpe the news no one in Australia wanted to believe.

Thorpe’s disqualification meant there was now an open spot for the event, which was taken by his on-and-off training partner and close mate, Craig Stevens.

Before Australia’s Olympic swimming trials in Brisbane next week, this masthead revisits the circus that followed Thorpe, Stevens and those close to the story for weeks – right up until the event in Athens.

“The headlines said it was the biggest story in sport since Phar Lap was murdered,” says Leigh Nugent, Australia’s head coach at the time.

This is the inside – and untold – story of the events that followed one of the most dramatic episodes in Australian sport, which even saw prime minister John Howard asked for his opinion.

“A lot has happened in that time,” says Stevens, who after short stints as a bank teller and Toyota employee, is now a respected swimming coach in the Sutherland shire. “It feels like something that happened last week. It’s not really spoken about as much any more … but sometimes people put two and two together.”

‘It’s Thorpey’

There is a saying in swimming circles at big meets: not much happens in the heats.

Those who were there on the morning of March 27, 2004, still sipping on their coffees, had no idea of the storm that was to follow.

Michael Cowley (Sydney Morning Herald swimming writer): I’d covered a late-finishing NBL grand final between the Kings and West Sydney Razorbacks the night before and the temptation was there to play catch-up on the heats later in the day, but being the first morning of Olympic trials I had to go, although there were a couple of vacant seats on the press bench that morning. Grant Hackett easily won his heat and then it was time for Ian Thorpe. Again, we all stopped for the start, with Ian in his new black and gold Adidas bodysuit.

Tracey Menzies (Thorpe’s coach): I was standing behind a barricade near the officials room. You know when things happen fast but it’s in slow motion? It was just like, ‘what do we do?’

Craig Stevens: Ian was in the last heat. That’s when he had his little mishap. I had swum and was in the warm-up pool when it happened. I stuck my head up and saw what happened.

Leigh Nugent (Australian head coach): I saw him when his body was going into the water. It was the last thing you’d expect. My immediate thought was ‘this is going to be the worst day of my life’.

Michael Klim (Olympian): I didn’t see it live. It’s a little bit surreal to think that an athlete of that calibre would make that kind of error. My initial thought was ‘how the hell did this happen’?

Giaan Rooney (Olympian): I remember all the screens very quickly showing the drama unfolding.

Thorpe: I think [to myself] if I just walk up really quickly and get back in my position, that maybe we can restart this race and knowing full well that is not going to happen. I have to be disqualified because it’s a very black and white rule. I knew.

John Keppie (referee): It was just my job. That’s the rule. He couldn’t do anything about it. I just said, “lane four, step down. You’ve started before the starting signal”. He said he heard a noise. I said there was no noise. He walked away. We didn’t say a lot to each other. There was a bit of booing going on. I turned around and the look on the faces on some of Swimming Australia’s hierarchy … I wish I had a camera. Mouths were open.

What now?

It was chaos on pool deck. The prospect of arguably Australia’s most loved Olympian not racing the 400m freestyle was unfathomable.

Channel Nine, host broadcasters for the trials, captured the moment but it did not go live to air.

Journalists and photographers scrambled to work out what had happened.

The Herald’s photographer that day, Craig Golding, captured a famous shot that many of his peers missed.

Golding: I noticed a bit of unsteadiness. He fell in. I just kept shooting. I looked at other photographers on the pool deck and could see the look on their faces. I was told later there was a big scramble among photographers, especially our opposition at News Limited, to hunt down any of the punters who might have had a picture. I felt incredible relief when I saw the shots.

Rooney: There was certainly no tantrum. Even in that most bizarre moment, Thorpey kept his cool. My level of respect for him was through the roof.

Ian Hanson (Swimming Australia media manager): It was all hands on deck for us. The phone was ringing. Word got around Thorpey heard a noise. We spent a lot of time in the broadcast stand listening to what we could hear.

Lesley Tapsall (executive producer of Nine’s coverage): We were in the van and saw this black image fall in the pool. I ran into the pool. People were coming at us. A Swimming Australia official said, ‘we’re going to have to take a look at what you’ve got’. Poor Tracey [Menzies] was trying to find a noise. Five of us were in the hut. They couldn’t find it. It was astonishing to be there. The look on Hackett’s face said it all.

Menzies: I knew I needed to move Ian away and make sure he was OK. We went through the whole spectrum of emotions. We just needed to move on and make the team in the 100m and 200m freestyle. We needed to park it but everyone wanted the circus to keep going.

David Mason (Swimming Australia media manager): It was my birthday that day. My daughter [Matilda] was three. I said to Hanso I might bring Matilda out for the heats because nothing ever happens in the heats. I was going to go out for lunch between heats and finals with my daughter and wife. Ian fell in the pool and it certainly changed my day. Ian was eventually ready to leave the pool a few hours later. He wanted to avoid the cameras that day. Hanso and Leigh Nugent went out the front door and did a media stand-up. I had my bombed up Ford Telstar parked out the back [as a getaway car]. It was me and Tracey in the front seat. Ian was in the back with [Matilda]. He was just chatting to Matilda as if nothing happened. He asked how her day was. Matilda said: ‘well, you’ve actually ruined it because I was supposed to go out for lunch with my Dad’. Thorpey laughed. As we left the back entrance we thought it’d be quiet but there were six or seven cameras there. We went out the gates and instead of taking the road, drove through a park near the athletics centre to Thorpey’s hotel. It was a hell of a couple of days.

All eyes on Stevens

That evening, with Thorpe watching on in the stands, Hackett won the 400m freestyle final in a time of three minutes, 43.35 seconds. Stevens finished in second place (3:48.08) and under the qualifying time.

Days later, Stevens also qualified for the 1500m freestyle, which was considered his best event. Thorpe was extra careful on the blocks before winning the 200m freestyle – he was the world record holder in this event – to book his ticket to Athens.

A potential scenario emerged. Thorpe could swim the 400m freestyle if Stevens agreed to give up his spot.

It was a debate that dominated the media. Everyone had an opinion, including the prime minister.

“I think it’s a tragedy that arguably one of the greatest swimmers this country has produced is not going to be performing for his country in his prime event,” Howard said in a television interview.

After dozens of interview requests, Stevens hired a manager – he’d never had one before – as public pressure mounted on the 23-year-old.

Hanson: He wasn’t being hawked around. People were ringing and making offers.

Stevens: Every morning at the pool there were camera crews. There were people knocking on my parents’ door asking questions. That hit home a bit. I didn’t want my mum and dad pestered. The sooner it was over, the sooner people could be left alone, including Ian. I needed to let him know.

Cowley: Every former swimming great had voiced their opinion.

Thorpe: It was a really difficult time. Craig was in a horrible position. I blocked it out of my mind to the extent that I wasn’t even willing to take a position in the 400. It took Craig a bit of time to actually come to that decision. I didn’t talk to him about it. I didn’t want to give him my opinion. It was a decision he had to make. He was encouraged to swim by coaches at the AIS [Australian Institute of Sport] and other people. I remember we went on a trip away to the South Coast to get away from everyone’s opinion and that glaring eye that looks over you.

Menzies: When Craig made it for the 1500m, that’s when the noise really ramped up. You’d go to the supermarket and people would make comments. It was a very difficult time for Craig and Ian. We trained at a public pool, so members of the public were coming up and asking, ‘what’s going to happen’? Even John Howard came out and said we need him to swim. Really? We’ve got to that level? That’s the beauty of sport.

It is widely assumed that Stevens was always going to withdraw. According to Nugent, that was not necessarily the case.

Nugent: [Stevens’ coach] Glenn Beringen came to me after the final ... and said, ‘we won’t be withdrawing from this event’. I thought to myself – and I’ve never shared this with anyone – if he doesn’t withdraw from this event, he’s going to wear this for the rest of his life. He’ll go into a pub as a 40-year-old and there’ll be someone saying, ‘you’re the guy that stopped Thorpey’. It would be totally unfair.

Rooney: I don’t think we as fellow athletes rallied around Craig enough in hindsight.

The tell-all TV interview

After a month of deliberating, Stevens made his decision and agreed to a paid television interview with Channel Seven on their Today Tonight program.

Stevens was reportedly paid between $60,000 and $130,000 for the interview in late April that year, less than four months before the Olympics. He was criticised in some sections of the media for taking a payment, while others believed he was entitled to the money to tell his story.

The whole country was ready to find out.

Anna Coren, who conducted the interview, and her bosses at Seven did not know what Stevens had decided until the cameras started rolling at the Ainslie Football Club in Canberra.

Stevens’ training partner, Sarah Ryan, said at the time, “he was in tears because of the way the media have been going on about it”.

Stevens: At times I wasn’t my normal self. Sarah probably saw that as something I had on my mind. Thinking about it now, I wonder if I did it the right way [with a paid interview]. There were people in our ears all the time. I just thought why not? I let Ian know first before it was all done. It was a bit surreal. People were making their opinions and telling me if I was doing the right thing or not. I owed it to Ian because of what he did for me over the years. It could have been a good thing for me to swim that 400 to settle my nerves going into Athens. When he was 15, in 1997, he trained with myself and a few others at Sutherland. I never would have made a team without training with him and [Thorpe’s then-coach] Doug Frost. I had two other events. People still think I didn’t go to those Olympics. It was a perfect scenario.

Nugent: I didn’t get a sniff at all. There was no indication he was going to pull out.

Klim: If I was in Craig’s position, I probably would have done the same.

Suddenly, the pressure turned to Thorpe, ahead of a race he was expected to win given his mate’s grand gesture.

Thorpe: Craig had said to me, ‘the reason that I’m giving up the swim is because of you and what this does for the team. We’re used to seeing you win this race and that lifts everyone for the rest of the meet’. For me, it was not just a level of expectation to perform, it was an expectation to win. I had been focusing on shorter events. It’s the first time I’ve swum a race actually having some doubts in my preparation. I was most definitely feeling the pressure going into that race.

Menzies: It spoke volumes about the person Craig is. He got nothing out of this. I don’t think there’s many in sport today that would step down. I don’t think any athlete – maybe Cathy Freeman in Sydney – has had pressure on their shoulders like Ian did. That’s probably the hardest thing I’ve had to coach.

Thorpe’s time to shine

Thorpe arrived in Athens having not lost a 400m freestyle final for six years.

The scrutiny was intense, even for a seasoned campaigner who’d been thrust into the spotlight as a teenager.

After a late challenge from Hackett in the dying stages of the final, Thorpe touched the wall in first place, just 0.26 seconds clear of his Aussie teammate.

The time of 3:43.10 seconds was not a world record but Thorpe could not have cared less. His reaction said it all.

Thorpe: Right up to the race … I’m at the peak level of anxiety. I can go either way. After the 400, I am relieved. I then felt I could start the Olympics.

Stevens: You saw at the end of the race how emotional he was. It would have been playing on his mind. It was just such a good thing to see that kind of pressure off him.

Menzies: I got to sit with Craig the night Ian raced. I actually get emotional thinking about it because … if there was anyone you were going to sit near that night, that was the one I needed to sit near. Ian doesn’t like to let people down. He wasn’t swimming it for him. He was swimming it for everyone else. It was sheer relief when he finished. It was done. He just looked hurt.

Stevens: When Ian decided he wanted to have Tracey as a coach ... that was a big thing for her to step up. Sorry. I’m getting a bit emotional talking about. Trace went through a lot ... [around] having to prove yourself to be able to coach an athlete like Ian. It was good to see her get that recognition. The way she has been treated now by a lot of people is pretty poor. We went through a lot together. If Tracey was in the same position now ... she would be put on a pedestal but that never happened.

Rooney: I’ve never seen Thorpey show that level of emotion after an individual race. It was extraordinary.

Nugent: In that race Ian probably did feel the pressure. It showed what a true champion Ian was. To go one-two gave us a massive lift right from the start.

Cowley: I asked him at the post-race press conference if there was a tear when he touched the wall. He denied it. Maybe it was a splash, but look at the vision or the photos. You can see what it meant.

Hanson: I walked him from the end of the mixed zone to the warm-down pool. There were some stairs and he was as wobbly as anything. He almost collapsed a couple of times. [Russian swimmer] Alex Popov walked past and said, ‘that was amazing, one of the most incredible things I’ve seen’. Thorpey just said, ‘it’s the last 400 I’ll ever do’. I’ll never forget that as long as I live.

Life goes on

Stevens won a silver medal at those Olympics as part of Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay team. He competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games – ironically, as a replacement for Thorpe, who pulled out due to illness – before picking up a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle at the 2007 world championships.

However Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia failed a drug test and was stripped of his gold medal, meaning Stevens was upgraded to silver.

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Stevens sent his bronze medal back, expecting to get a silver in return. Both medals got lost. He has nothing to show for that performance, just a memory.

Now married with kids, Stevens wouldn’t change a thing.

“Craig’s always been this unsung hero,” Menzies says. “He’s a quiet achiever and humble man. I have a lot of time for Craig.”

Stevens added: “We all moved on and things worked out. It’s just good to be able to reminisce.”

2024 Australian swimming trials; exclusive, live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now from Monday June 10. Finals start at 7.30pm AEST each night.