By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer, Sydney

Ian Thorpe is reminded so often about his size 17 feet they have become almost as famous in this city as the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

But it was the mere length of a hand which kick-started these Millennium Olympics on Saturday in quite spectacular style.

Early in the morning, British time, Thorpe, the 17-year-old swimming phenomenon picked up Australia's first gold medals - one in the 400 metres freestyle and another in the 4x100m freestyle relay, both shattering the world record.

By the middle of next week the odds are he will have added two more and become the man forever identified with the Olympic Games of Sydney 2000.

Just as Mark Spitz enthralled the world with his seven golds, all in world records, in Munich in 1972. Just as Carl Lewis dominated sprinting in Los Angeles in 1984.

Thorpe is that good, that special, that close to immortality.

They say great sportsmen always seem to have time, always make their trade seem like "just another day at the office". And that's exactly what Thorpe did as he extended those octopus tentacles which serve as arms to cruise to Australia's first gold medal of the Games in lazy and languid fashion in the 400m freestyle, an event which allows him to take full advantage of the huge power in those rotor-blade limbs.

That was merely confirmation of the entirely expected, a feat no more troubling for Thorpe than tying his shoelaces. It was what he did an hour later in the relay, before which his first gold medal ceremony was shoe-horned, which set him apart as a contender for the greatest Olympic swimmer of all time.

The distance was not his best, the Americans were favourites, they had never before left the Olympics without this particular sprint title.

Thorpe was also up against Gary Hall on the final leg - the world's second fastest sprinter behind Alexander Popov and a man who only last week dismissed Thorpe and co. saying they "would get smashed like guitars".

Well, it was the Americans who received the 'Pete Townsend' treatment as Thorpe took to the water with a yard lead, turned at the halfway mark almost two yards down and then timed his fightback with such precision that one last languid stroke propelled Australia to victory by no more than six inches.

At the end he virtually vaulted out of the water and his team-mates rushed to embrace the boy-man who is the epitome of Australia's sporting dream.

Up in the stands Aussie Prime Minister John Howard and Greg Norman, golf's own 'Great White Shark', grinned and applauded delightedly.

And later even the conquered Hall was moved to put Thorpe on his deserved sporting pedestal. "I doff my swim cap to the great Ian Thorpe," said Hall.

"I consider this race to be the best I've ever been involved with. I'd be a liar to say it wasn't disappointing but in the same breath we were one-and-a-half seconds inside the old world record. He just had a better finish than I had.

"I heard that Dawn Fraser said it is the greatest relay race she has ever seen and she's seen a lot. She's been around a long time."

And you had to wonder at the grace and maturity with which Thorpe copes with the expectations of a sports-crazy nation. It's no overstatement to say that much of the success of these Games, for Australia at least, rests on the broad shoulders of the man who lists his favourite pastime as a round of golf with his dad Ken.

In a country where swimming has the status of a national sport rather than just a matter of spending a spare afternoon Thorpe is the 'David Beckham with brains'.

He is the man whose face you bump into every time you turn a corner on the side of high-rise office blocks, the star whose image was superimposed on to a 300-foot long flag at yesterday's opening ceremony because he could not be there in person - and they couldn't celebrate without a daily fix of their current sporting superstar.

He is also the man who became swimming's youngest-ever world champion at the age of 15 and who recently won Australia's Hall of Fame Don Bradman award for the athlete who most inspires a nation.

Coping with that lot it's just as well he appears 17 going on 37. Ever courteous, calm and confident, yet without even a trace of arrogance. They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps and there is no doubt both friends and rivals regard him as a "fair dinkum bloke".

Indeed, so popular is he with his team-mates that, to the tune of 'New York, New York', they have taken to singing: "Start spreading the news, he's swimming today" in the changing room before big races.

They also apparently put his inevitable nickname to good use in another verse set to ABBA's 'Fernando': "There's something in the air tonight in black and white, Thorpedo."

Such personality is something of a revelation in a sport which struggles with the anonymity of goggles, caps and body suits. Experts have put his phenomenal success down to being a physical freak - his arm span being eight inches longer than the average boy of his age and, of course, his amazing feet.

Thorpe, who wants to retire at 25 after two more Olympics and with the title of the greatest swimmer who ever lived, today preferred less technical observations.

"The last part of the race was just a blur," he said. "I just swam as hard as I could. When I touched the wall I knew I'd won and it was truly amazing to share the experience with my three team-mates.

"I hope it kick-starts a very successful Olympics for us all."

Watch out for a few more explosions from the Thorpedo over the next few days.