Thorpe provides drive for ‘Clyde the Glide’
The monkey business behind the naming of swimming’s new cult hero Clyde Lewis goes beyond dad Andy’s zeal for saluting his favourite orang-utan from his favourite Clint Eastwood movie.
Young Lewis, 20, has always embraced the name game played by his family because he has a teenage brother Jimi named after, you guessed it, American rock icon Jimi Hendrix.
Proud father Andy has already enjoyed onegolden moment when Clyde pushed his body to breaking point for his 400m individual medley triumph on Friday night at the Commonwealth Games.
‘Clyde the Glide’ is up again in today’s 200 IM, a relative sprint which won’t end this time with him speechless from fatigue and faltering on jelly legs.
“I remember the midwife saying when he was born, ‘this one’s going to be special’, and he’s done himself and his country proud,” Lewis senior said.
“At first sight, he had a really long body and arms ... and those arms are still serving him well.
“I love my Clint Eastwood movies and always liked the Clyde name so he got it from the orang-utan in Every Which Way But Loose.
“He’s into it too. When Clyde had a few days off swimming at 14 with cramps, we just sat on the couch watching the Dirty Harry films, the old west- erns, every Clint Eastwood movie we could find.”
While a fan of Eastwood’s offerings, young Lewis said he had become hooked on swimming after watching Olympics idol Ian Thorpe in action.
“I was the classic Thorpey kid story,” he said. “Seeing him on the news all the time, watching him win his gold medals at the 1994 Olympics and being inspired like the whole of the nation.”
– Jim Tucker