Alyssa Healy responds to Ian Thorpe commentary about ‘dominant’ Australian swim team

Swimming legend Ian Thorpe has found himself in the crosshair’s of Australian cricket great Alyssa Healy – who has taken umbrage at a piece of commentary from the Paris Olympics.

Ian Thorpe's comments during the Olympics caught the attention of Australian cricket star Alyssa Healy.

They were the comments from an Australian sporting icon that caught Alyssa Healy’s attention.

It was on the first weekend of the Paris Olympics that the Aussie women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team won gold for the fourth successive Games.

Commentating on Nine, the legendary Ian Thorpe posited that “I don’t think there is a more dominant Australian team in any code, any sport. Please tell me if there is one. Happy to be wrong on it.”

Healy alerted her husband and Australian paceman Mitchell Starc to gauge his opinion on the matter.

The Australian 4x100 women’s freestyle team celebrate winning gold in Paris. Picture: Adam Head

Sure the freestylers had done very well, but the Australian women’s cricket team – now captained by Healy – has won the last four World Cups (across both white-ball formats), claimed Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and has held the women’s Ashes since 2015. Understandably Healy’s eyebrows were raised.

“I love that (Thorpe) thought that and he’s pointed that out,” Healy told this masthead.

“And then all of a sudden, you see people pointing out other teams that have been just as successful. I mean, I love (rugby sevens star) Charlotte Caslick’s quote as well about (in order) to get some attention they’ve got to win gold just to try and get attention.

“And I feel like that’s kind of where we’re at as well. People expect us to win all the time.

“And when you fall a little bit short, it’s like the world’s ending but at the same time, it’s professional sport, and it’s hard to keep maintain that standard. So look, we’ll keep trying our best and try and get in the front of Thorpey’s mind.”

Alyssa Healy celebrates winning the Women's Cricket World Cup trophy in 2022. Picture: Getty

The next chance to impress “Thorpedo” comes on Thursday night when the Aussies face New Zealand in Mackay in the first of three Twenty20 internationals against the White Ferns before departing for the UAE in search of a fourth-straight T20 World Cup title.

When a team has set such high standards for so long, it’s hard to keep raising the bar, and that external criticism is bound to come with even a minor slip-up.

“We set really high expectations of ourselves as well,” Healy said.

“We don’t go into a World Cup thinking we’re going to come second, we’re going there to win a trophy and we set lofty standards ourselves.

“But we know within our group how we’re tracking and how that’s looking leading into it.

Alyssa Healy says the pressure on the Australian women’s cricket team to deliver is immense. Picture: Getty

“But the expectations from outside we kind of keep at bay. Everyone thinks we’re gonna walk home with the trophy, but we know how hard it is to win a World Cup and how close we’ve been to not winning World Cups in the past. So we don’t take that for granted. We’ll let the outside noise do what it does. And we’ll just focus on what we can do internally to make sure that we’re doing the job.”

Vice-captain Tahlia McGrath agreed that increased scrutiny was a reasonable price to pay for women’s cricket’s expanding footprint.

“We’re asking for big crowds. We’re asking for all these things. And with that comes media scrutiny. We want to be the best team in the world. And when we’re not, we’re held accountable pretty quickly,” McGrath said.

“So yeah, it’s a tough one, but I suppose you’ve just got to take it in your stride and at times block out the white noise and at times, embrace it.”

Originally published as Alyssa Healy responds to Ian Thorpe commentary about ‘dominant’ Australian swim team