Olympic silver medallist Izzy Thorpe ‘hungry for LA’ with gold in her sights

The childhood friends became the first Britons to claim an Olympic medal in artistic swimming earlier this month as they finished runners-up to Chinese twin sisters Liuyi and Qianyi Wang in the women’s duet.

While their achievement that could do much to raise the profile of the sport in this country is yet to sink in, Thorpe, at 23, and Shortman, 22, have plenty of time on their side to add to their legacy.

And being on the podium in Paris has given the duo, who claimed two medals at the World Championships in Doha earlier this year, belief that they could go all the way at Los Angeles 2028.

“At the moment, I’m just trying to soak it all up and enjoy the moment,” Thorpe told the PA news agency. “It does make us hungry for LA. Now it is possible to get the gold.

“I think before we went into Paris thinking ‘we’re going to go for gold’ but it was also a case of ‘is that possible’? But we came away with silver so now we know it’s definitely in our sights.

“After we did so well in Doha, there was that pressure going into Paris because we were seeded second. I think we dealt with it quite well so now going forwards, we’ve learnt how to deal with that.

“We’re going to take each year at a time, see how it goes and you never know. LA, we’ll see.”

Bristol duo Thorpe and Shortman have been swimming together since the age of nine while their mothers competed alongside one another and came close to qualifying for Atalanta 1996.

Training for up to 12 hours a day and being in each other’s pockets while on training camps has instilled a deep almost sibling bond – and, oddly enough, they were the only pairing in the top-five in the French capital who were not twins or part of a set of triplets.

“To think we did really well against them goes to show we spend so much time together, we may as well be sisters,” Thorpe, whose mother Karen is one of her and Shortman’s coaches, said.

“We’ve kind of morphed into the same person; we always get told that we look the same, we talk the same, we end up wearing the same outfits all the time.”

Thorpe, speaking to promote Swim England’s #LoveSwimming campaign which encourages youngsters to get in the pool, is optimistic her and Shortman’s success can propel the sport forward in Great Britain.

With the scoring system overhauled last year to make it more objective, Thorpe would be eager for Team GB to compete in the mixed team event at LA 2028.

“Our team is quite young at the moment, it’s mostly juniors. I know a lot of them have said their goal is to go to LA 2028 with the team,” Thorpe added.

“It would be a big task but it is definitely doable, especially with the rule change. Before the change, it was really hard to climb the rankings. The change reignited my passion and motivation.

“To think we’re helping to widen the sport and create a platform for the young girls and boys, to feel like they can go and do what we’ve done is a really nice feeling.”

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