title: European People's Party

text: The "EPP and like-minded Group" in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the most active political group in that body. The Group meets regularly and promotes the EPP's positions. The members of the EPP Group also participate in the election-monitoring missions of the OSCE.


title: European People's Party

text: The Group is chaired by Walburga Habsburg Douglas (Sweden), and its Vice-Presidents are Consiglio Di Nino (Canada), Vilija Aleknaitė Abramikiene (Lithuania), Laura Allegrini (Italy), and George Tsereteli (Georgia).


title: European People's Party

text: The Group also includes members of parties not related to the EPP, accounting for the "like-minded" part of its name. Among them are members of the Patriotic Union (Liechtenstein), the Union for the Principality (Monaco), the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party of Canada, and the Republican Party of the United States.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP is also present and active in the Parliamentary Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and forms the "EPP and Associated Members" Group there. It is led by the German CDU politician Karl Lamers, who is also the current President of the Assembly. The Group also included members of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Republican Party of the United States, but now they're members of the Conservative Group


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP has close relations with the International Republican Institute (IRI), an organisation funded by the U.S. government especially to promote democracy and democratisation. The EPP and the IRI cooperate within the framework of the European Partnership Initiative.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP's late President, Wilfried Martens, endorsed Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, in the presidential election in 2008. McCain was also Chairman of the IRI. In 2011 Martens and McCain made joint press statements expressing their concern about the state of democracy in Ukraine.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP is the European wing of two global centre-right organisations, the International Democrat Union (IDU) and the Christian Democrat International (CDI).


title: European People's Party

text: Following the revision in 2007 of the EU Regulation that governs European political parties, allowing the creation of European foundations affiliated to Europarties, the EPP established in the same year its official foundation/think tank, the Centre for European Studies (CES), which was later renamed as the Martens Centre. It includes as members all the major national think tanks and foundations affiliated to EPP member parties: the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (CDU), the Hanns Seidel Foundation (CSU), the Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies (PP), the Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy (ND), the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation (MOD), the Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and others. During the European Parliament election campaign in 2009, the Centre launched a web-based campaign module, "tellbarroso.eu", to support Jose Manuel Barroso, the EPP's candidate for re-election as Commission President.


title: European People's Party

text: In 2014, to honour Wilfried Martens – the late President of the EPP who also founded the CES – changed its name to Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies or simply Martens Centre.


title: European People's Party

text: The Budapest-based Robert Schuman Institute and the Luxembourg-based Robert Schuman Foundation are also affiliated with the European People's Party.


title: European People's Party

text: The EPP is linked to several specific associations that focus on specific groups and organise seminars, forums, publications, and other activities.


title: European People's Party

text: SME Europe is the official business organisation of the EPP and serves as a network for pro-business politicians and political organisations. Its main objective is to shape EU policy in a more SME-friendly way in close cooperation with the SME Circle of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, the DG Enterprise and the pro-business organisations of the EPP's member parties. Its top priorities are to reform the legal framework for SMEs all over Europe and to promote and support the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises. SME Europe was founded in May 2012 by three Members of the European Parliament, Paul Rübig, Nadezhda Neynsky, and Bendt Bendtsen.


title: European People's Party

text: European Democrat Students (EDS) is now the official students' organisation of the EPP, though it was founded in 1961, 15 years before the EPP itself. Led by Virgilio Falco, EDS has 40 member organisations, representing nearly 1,600,000 students and young people in 31 countries, including Belarus and Georgia. Every year EDS hosts Summer and Winter "universities", and several seminars. It also regularly publishes a magazine, "Bullseye", and organises topical campaigns.


title: European People's Party

text: Founded in Madrid in 1995 and led by Ann Hermans of the CD&V, the European Seniors' Union (ESU) is the largest political senior citizens' organisation in Europe. The ESU is represented in 26 states with 45 organisations and about 500,000 members.


title: European People's Party

text: The European Union of Christian Democratic Workers (EUCDW) is the labour organisation of the EPP, with 24 member organisations in 18 countries. As the officially recognised EPP association of workers, the EUCDW is led by Elmar Brok, MEP. It aims at the political unification of a democratic Europe, the development of the EPP based on Christian social teaching, and the defence of workers' interests in European policy-making.


title: European People's Party

text: The Women of the European People's Party (EPP Women) is recognised by the EPP as the official association of women from all like-minded political parties of Europe. EPP Women has more than 40 member organisations from countries of the European Union and beyond. All of them are women's organisations of political parties that are members of the EPP. EPP Women is led by Doris Pack.


title: European People's Party

text: The Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP), led by Lídia Pereira, is the EPP's official youth organisation. It has 64 member organisations, bringing together between one and two million young people in 40 countries.


title: Tara Strong filmography

text: Tara Strong (née Charendoff) is a Canadian-American actress who has provided voice-work for animation and video games and has performed in live-action. Her roles include animated series such as "Rugrats", "The Powerpuff Girls", "The Fairly OddParents", "Teen Titans", "Wow Wow Wubbzy!" and "" and video games such as "Mortal Kombat X", "Final Fantasy X-2" and the "" series. She has earned nominations from the Annie Awards and Daytime Emmys and an award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.


title: Tara Strong filmography

text: In 2004, she had won an Interactive Achievement Award for her role as Rikku in "Final Fantasy X-2". She also served as the announcer for the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards, appeared as a guest panelist at several fan conventions (including BotCon, Jacon, Comic-Con International and Anime Overdose) and was featured on the front cover of the July/August 2004 issue of "Working Mother" magazine, in which she said, "My son is now old enough to respond to my work. To me, that's what it is all about." Strong has earned five Annie Award nominations.


title: Tara Strong filmography

text: In 2013, Strong won the Shorty Award for "Best #Actress" for her use of social media. The Behind the Voice Actors website selected her for a BTVA Voice Acting Award for Voice Actress of the Year for 2013 and nominated her for the 2011 and 2012 years.


title: Tahith Chong

text: Tahith Jose Girigorio Djorkaef Chong (born 4 December 1999) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Birmingham City.


title: Tahith Chong

text: Chong joined the Manchester United Academy aged 16, after progressing through the Feyenoord youth system. He won both the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year and Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year awards at United. He made his professional debut in 2019, in an FA Cup game against Reading. In August 2020, he joined Werder Bremen on a season-long loan, which was cut short in January 2021 to facilitate a loan move to Club Brugge. He spent the 2021–22 season on loan at Birmingham City and then joined the club permanently in September 2022.


title: Tahith Chong

text: Chong made more than 40 appearances for the Netherlands national youth teams from under-15 to under-21 level. He is also eligible to represent Curaçao at international level.


title: Tahith Chong

text: Chong was born in Willemstad, Curaçao which was then part of the Netherlands Antilles. He is of African and Chinese descent. He later moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands, in order to pursue a move to a professional club. Upon completing a move to Manchester United, Chong's parents also moved to England.


title: Tahith Chong

text: Chong joined the youth ranks of Eredivisie club Feyenoord aged 10, and had attracted interest from several Premier League clubs by the age of 16. In September 2014, Chong took part in the Manchester Premier Cup at the Carrington Training Ground, where he was spotted by Manchester United scouts. In early 2016, Chong was on the verge of joining Chelsea.


title: Tahith Chong

text: In April 2016, Chong announced that he was to join Manchester United after Feyenoord failed to "make a plan" for him. The transfer was made official three months later upon receiving international clearance. Initially linking up with the Under-18s, Chong scored his club's only goal of their 2016–17 FA Youth Cup campaign as they suffered a third round exit to Southampton. The following month, he was ruled out for the remainder of the season after suffering a cruciate ligament injury. Making his return 10 months later for the Under-23s, Chong went on to be named the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year in May 2018.


title: Tahith Chong

text: In July 2018, Chong was called up to the first team for their pre-season tour in the United States. In their opening game, he featured as a second-half substitute in a 1–1 draw against Club América, followed by starting in their goalless draw against the San Jose Earthquakes. On 23 October, he was named as an unused substitute for the first time in United's 1–0 defeat to Juventus in the Champions League. Following the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjær as caretaker manager, Chong made his competitive debut replacing Juan Mata in a 2–0 FA Cup victory against Reading on 5 January. At the end of the season, he was named the Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year award, becaming the first player since Giuseppe Rossi to win the award the year after being named the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year. On 9 March 2020, Chong signed a new contract to keep him at the club until 2022, with the option to extend a further year.


title: Tahith Chong

text: On 16 August 2020, Chong joined Bundesliga club Werder Bremen on a season-long loan. On 12 September, he scored his first goal in his first competitive match for Werder Bremen against FC Carl Zeiss Jena in the DFB-Pokal. Chong's loan was cut short in January 2021. Chong joined Belgian First Division A club Club Brugge on loan on 30 January, and scored on his debut four days later in a Belgian Cup game against Olsa Brakel.


title: Tahith Chong

text: On 9 July 2021, Chong joined Birmingham City on a season-long loan. However, he spent pre-season ahead of the 2021–22 campaign at his parent club, and joined Birmingham in time for the start of the Championship season. He made his debut for Birmingham in a 1–0 win over Sheffield United on 7 August, and two weeks later, he made two assists in a 5–0 win over Luton Town. On 2 November 2021, Chong returned to Manchester United for his rehabilitation following surgery on a serious groin injury. He returned to Birmingham in February 2022, and two minutes into his first start after his return, away to Bristol City, he opened the scoring in a 2–1 win; it was his only goal for the club. He lasted another month before a "tweaked" hamstring kept him out until the last match of the season.


title: Tahith Chong

text: Chong played youth international football for the Netherlands at under-15, under-16, under-17, under-19, under-20 and under-21 levels. He represented the under-17 national team at the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and scored the only goal in the quarter-final victory against Sweden.


title: Tahith Chong

text: In June 2021, Chong accepted a call-up to the Curaçao national team for their 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup preliminary squad. However, he was not included in the final squad, which subsequently withdrew from the tournament due to an outbreak of COVID-19.


title: Close-in weapon system

text: A close-in weapon system (CIWS ) is a point-defense weapon system for detecting and destroying short-range incoming missiles and enemy aircraft which have penetrated the outer defenses, typically mounted on a naval ship. Nearly all classes of larger modern warships are equipped with some kind of CIWS device.


title: Close-in weapon system

text: There are two types of CIWS systems. A gun-based CIWS usually consists of a combination of radars, computers, and rapid-firing multiple-barrel rotary cannons placed on a rotating turret. Missile-based CIWSs use either infra-red, passive radar/ESM, or semi-active radar terminal guidance to guide missiles to the targeted enemy aircraft or other threats. In some cases, CIWS are used on land to protect military bases. In this case, the CIWS can also protect the base from shell and rocket fire.


title: Close-in weapon system

text: A gun-based CIWS usually consists of a combination of radars, computers and rotary or revolver cannon placed on a rotating, automatically aimed gun mount. Examples of gun-based CIWS products in operation are:


title: Close-in weapon system

text: CIWS are also used on land in the form of C-RAM. On a smaller scale, "active protection systems" are used in some tanks (to destroy rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), and several are in development. The Drozd system was deployed on Soviet Naval Infantry tanks in the early 1980s, but later replaced by explosive reactive armour. Other systems that are available or under development are the Russian Arena, Israeli Trophy, American Quick Kill and South African-Swedish LEDS-150.


title: Close-in weapon system

text: Laser-based CIWS systems are being researched. In August 2014 an operational prototype was deployed to the Persian Gulf aboard . The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Turkish: "Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu", TÜBİTAK) is the second organisation after the US to have developed and tested a High Power Laser CIWS prototype System which is intended to be used on the TF-2000 class frigate and on Turkish airborne systems.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Cromwell tank, officially Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell (A27M), was one of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War-era military leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was the first tank put into service by the British to combine high speed from a powerful, reliable engine (the Rolls-Royce Meteor) and reasonable armour. The intended dual-purpose high velocity gun could not be fitted in the turret, so a medium velocity dual purpose gun was fitted instead. Further development of the Cromwell combined with a high velocity gun led to the Comet tank.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The name "Cromwell" was initially applied to three vehicles during development. Early Cromwell development led to the creation of the A24 Cavalier. Later Cromwell development led to the creation of the competing Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Centaur (A27L) design. The Centaur tank was closely related to the Cromwell, both vehicles being externally similar. The Cromwell and Centaur tanks differed in the engine used; the Centaur had the 410 hp Liberty engine, the Cromwell had the significantly more powerful 600 hp Meteor; Centaur hulls were converted to Cromwells by changing the engine.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Cromwell first saw action in the Battle of Normandy in June 1944. The tank equipped the armoured reconnaissance regiments of the Royal Armoured Corps, in the 7th Armoured Division, 11th Armoured Division and the Guards Armoured Division. While the armoured regiments of the latter two divisions were equipped with M4 Shermans, the armoured regiments of the 7th Armoured Division were equipped with Cromwells. The Centaurs were not used in combat except for those fitted with a 95 mm howitzer, which were used in support of the Royal Marines during the amphibious invasion of Normandy.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Development of the Cromwell and Centaur dates to 1940, as the Crusader tank was being readied for service. The General Staff was aware that the Crusader would become obsolete, and in late 1940 they set out the specifications for a replacement tank, expected to enter service in 1942, fitted with the QF 6 pounder gun.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Vauxhall responded with the A23, a scaled down version of their A22 Churchill infantry tank. This would have had 75 mm of frontal armour, used a 12-cylinder Bedford engine, carried a crew of five and would have had the same suspension as the A22.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Nuffield submitted the A24, heavily based on its Crusader design and powered by its version of the Liberty engine, a V-12 design dating the late days of World War I and now thoroughly outdated. Nevertheless, as the design was based on the Crusader, it was expected it could be put into production rapidly.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The final entry was from Leyland and Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon (BRC&W). Their design was similar to the Nuffield, but with different suspension and tracks.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The designs were received and examined in January 1941, with Nuffield's A24 being declared the winner on 17 January. Six prototypes of the Cromwell were ordered for the spring of 1942. These arrived four months late, and by this time the design was already outdated. It was put into production anyway, but in service it proved underpowered. Only a small number were built.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Delays in the A24 program led to demands to get the QF 6 pounder into service earlier. This led to a series of up-gunned Crusaders mounting the 6-pounder.


title: Cromwell tank

text: With the start of the war, Rolls-Royce ended car production and set up a design team looking for other ways to use their design capability. The team formed under the direction of W. A. Robotham at Clan Foundry in Belper, north of Derby. They began recovering and refurbishing parts from crashed Merlin engines with the intention of using them for non-aviation purposes.


title: Cromwell tank

text: In October 1940, Robotham met Henry Spurrier of Leyland Motors to discuss British tank design. The Tank Board desperately needed a more powerful tank engine to replace the aging Liberty. Robotham and Spurrier decided to attempt to fit a refurbished and re-worked Rolls-Royce Merlin engine to a Leyland tank for testing. Design had three priorities:


title: Cromwell tank

text: They removed the supercharger from a Merlin Mk. III to downgrade the performance to a suitable level for tank use, reversed the direction of engine rotation to match tank transmissions, and fitted the resulting engine to a Leyland-built Crusader.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Delivered to Aldershot on 6 April 1941, the test team had trouble timing its runs because it was so fast, estimating it reached . Leyland arranged to start production of 1,000 examples of the engine as the Meteor.


title: Cromwell tank

text: With engine power doubled, it soon became apparent that the additional stresses placed on the Crusader components required significant re-work to increase reliability. Leyland had no spare capacity, and re-work commenced with the help of BRC&W. It was planned to fit this to BRC&W-built versions of their original A24 submission.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Refitting the design of the A24 Cromwell for the Meteor engine was not acceptable to Nuffield, and hence a new specification of tank was created working with Leyland, the A27 Cromwell.


title: Cromwell tank

text: In mid-1941, Leyland changed its mind, concerned about cooling problems. This was a major concern for the Tank Board, as cooling issues had been a major problem for the previous generation of Crusader and Covenanter tanks. The Tank board was still committed to the Meteor, but to avoid dedicating all resources into a potentially flawed design, the design was split into three separate vehicles:


title: Cromwell tank

text: These early design designations of Cromwell I, II, and III are not to be confused with the later production designations of Cromwell I, II, etc. which were production variants of the A27M.


title: Cromwell tank

text: While Leyland continued with the Liberty under A27L, the Tank Board continued with the Meteor engine by placing an order directly with Rolls-Royce. Leyland also suggested using a diesel engine of their own design, although this was later abandoned.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Cromwell's cooling system was a new design and put through over nine months of testing in a variety of configurations. This included the development of new fan drives and inlet louvres, which can be seen on the Cromwell engine deck. The resulting system for a Meteor-powered tank delivered both the necessary cooling performance, and reduced the power lost in driving the cooling system from 90 hp to 30 hp. This made the performance improvement of the Meteor over the Liberty even more pronounced and left room for expected development of the A27.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The first (mild steel) prototype of a Meteor-powered A27M Cromwell was delivered to the Army for trials in March 1942, several months before the A24 that was supposed to precede it, and also prior to the A27L Centaur pilot vehicle. With nearly it proved to be exceptionally mobile when tested.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Orders were placed for both A27L and A27M versions as there were concerns about the production rate of the Meteor. Design also commenced on a 17-pounder armed version under specification A30, leading to parallel development of the A30 Challenger.


title: Cromwell tank

text: As all of Rolls Royce's production capacity was engaged in producing the Merlin engine for aircraft, production of the Meteor version was initially based solely on parts recovered from crashed aircraft, with many engines still showing crash damage. Additional sources for manufacturing the Meteor engine were investigated. Even when assigned reduced production quotas, BRC&W proved unable to meet the demand for Cromwell, and Leyland became the design and production parent of both the A27L and A27M versions including subcontracted work.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Rolls was at this time having trouble meeting demand for the Merlin, let alone the Meteor. Meanwhile, Rover was having troubles developing Frank Whittle's Power Jets W.2 jet engine design due to increasing animosity between the engineers at Power Jets and Rover. Things became particularly heated when Whittle learned that Rover had set up a secret lab to develop their own versions of the design. Whittle had, during the same period, contacted Rolls for help delivering some of the required parts that Rover proved unable to produce.


title: Cromwell tank

text: A solution to both their problems was offered by Ernest Hives, a Rolls board member, who had met Whittle and was fascinated by the jet engine (Rolls-Royce's major product was piston aero engines). Hives called a meeting with his counterpart at Rover, Spencer Wilks, and the two met late in 1942 at the Swan and Royal pub in Clitheroe. Hives offered to trade the Meteor for the W.2, an offer Wilks jumped at. Rover set up production at their Tyseley factory, and an additional line was set up by Morris Motors in Coventry.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Production began in November 1942. That month, new names were given to all three designs; the original A24 Cromwell I became the Cavalier, the Liberty powered A27L Cromwell II became Centaur, and the Meteor powered A27M kept the name Cromwell. It would take considerable time for Rover to make ready production lines for the Meteor, and it was not until a few months later, in January 1943, that sufficient Meteor engines were available and the A27M Cromwell began production. The official handover of the Meteor and W.2 took place on 1 January 1943.


title: Cromwell tank

text: To increase production of Meteor engines Rover and Morris required machine tools from the US, which took time to arrive. In the interim, Centaur production continued, to avoid closing Cromwell tank production lines. The Cromwell had originally been intended to mount the high velocity QF 6-pounder tank gun as primary armour piercing (AP) armament with a few mounting the Ordnance QF 95 mm howitzer to fire high explosive and smoke shells as close support tanks.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The earlier introduction of US M3 Grant and M4 Sherman tanks placed a dual purpose 75 mm gun into British and Commonwealth service. The 75 mm could fire a more effective HE shell than the 6-pounder at the cost of a reduction in armour-piercing performance. The 6-pounder firing solely AP shells was a retrograde step. Once the Vickers 75 mm HV gun was seen to be too big for the Cromwell turret, work was begun in December 1942 on the Ordnance QF 75 mm (a development of the 6-pounder that fired US ammunition) for fitting to British tanks. Mark IV Cromwells were delivered with 75 mm guns from November 1943.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Noting the problems with the medium velocity 75 mm dual purpose weapon, Vickers had already commenced development of a high velocity 75 mm gun that would fire American 75 mm ammunition but at a much higher velocity.


title: Cromwell tank

text: A complete move to Sherman tanks was not acceptable to British forces who would then be dependent on the US for tank production. At the same time, Cromwell with the Meteor engine and a HV weapon was shown to have superior power "and" armament, while US efforts to produce the Sherman replacement, the T20 Medium Tank, were not receiving sufficient attention.


title: Cromwell tank

text: A compromise was achieved with a reduction in British tank production during 1943 and 1944, with an increase in consumption of Sherman tanks, the remainder being delivered in parts as spares. Centaur production bore the brunt of this reduction, having only been continued to maintain factories producing Cromwell hulls while the number of Meteor engines was inadequate. It had already been arranged that Centaur production would be phased out when Meteor engine production increased. The list of machine tools required for the increase in Meteor output was also agreed, allowing Cromwell manufacture to scale.


title: Cromwell tank

text: At the same time as negotiations with the US, problems were being encountered with the use of the Vickers 75 mm HV gun in the Cromwell, with a larger turret ring being required. This was now expected to be introduced in mid 1944, leaving the majority of Cromwells with the medium velocity gun similar to the Sherman. Design of the high velocity variant was split to a separate specification. Intended as just another version of Cromwell, the new A34 version eventually needed significant re-engineering leading to production of the A34 Comet, which used a high velocity gun firing 17-pounder ammunition from a gun by a smaller cartridge down a shorter barrel. In the interim, the A27M version started.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The first real field test of the design was carried out in August–September 1943, when examples of the Centaur and Cromwell were tested against Shermans (the diesel-engined M4A2 and multibank petrol-engined M4A4) in Exercise Dracula, a long trip around Britain. The Shermans proved to be the most reliable by far, requiring 420 hours of specialist fitter attention over a total distance travelled of with 199 defects. This corresponds to 0.03 hours per mile. In comparison, the Cromwells drove with 367 defects and required 814 hours, or 0.07 hours per mile. The Centaur managed only with 297 defects, due to constant breakdown, and required 742 hours, or 0.087 hours per mile.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Cromwell and Centaur were given additional time to work out these problems. The Cromwell problems were mostly related to oil leaks and brake and clutch failures, an observer noting that these were well-known and should already have been corrected. The crews expressed their love for the design and especially its speed and handling. The Centaur was largely dismissed, with one observer expressing his hope that units were being equipped with it only for training purposes. The same reviewers unanimously supported the Sherman. A similar test in November demonstrated the Cromwell was improving, while the underpowered Centaur fared no better than in the first test.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Alongside Cromwell production, Centaur production design also allowed for the later conversion to the Meteor engine. A small number were retro-fitted for trials as Cromwell III and Cromwell X. As the Cromwell proved itself, larger numbers were fitted with the Meteor engine on the production line as Cromwell III and IV (not to be confused with the earlier Cromwell III design project).


title: Cromwell tank

text: The production model design was finalised on 2 February 1944 when Leyland released specifications for what they called the "Battle Cromwell".


title: Cromwell tank

text: This included a number of minor changes to the basic design, including of extra armour below the crew compartment, the introduction of an all-round vision cupola for the commander, seam welding all joints to waterproof and strengthen the tank, and standardising on the A27M version with Meteor engine and Merritt-Brown transmission.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Cromwell Final Specification was applied part way through the production of Cromwell III and IV, changing the appearance and specification of both vehicles. The specification was later improved toward the end of the war with the Cromwell VII, resulting in an upgrade programme.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Centaur and Cavalier never met the requirements to enter front-line service. Most were used for training, although a few notable exceptions were used in action.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Total A27 production consisted of 4,016 tanks, 950 of which were Centaurs and 3,066 Cromwells. In addition, 375 Centaur hulls were built to be fitted with an anti-aircraft gun turret; only 95 of these were completed.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Production was led by Leyland Motors on Centaur, and Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (BRC&W) on Cromwell. Several other British firms also built Centaur and Cromwell tanks, however, as the numbers required were greater than any one company could deliver. Companies contracted to build the tanks included English Electric, Harland and Wolff, John Fowler & Co., LMS Railway, Metro-Cammell, Morris Motors and Ruston-Bucyrus.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Production of Cromwell and Centaur was split into two different groups. Cromwell was to be built by BRC&W and Metro-Cammell while Centaur was to be built by Leyland, English-Electric, Harland & Wolf, John Fowler & Co., LMS, Morris, Ruston-Bucyrus. Nuffield also switched production to Centaur when Cavalier completed. To increase Cromwell production capacity, English Electric switched from manufacturing Centaur to Cromwell, but remained tooled for Centaur. This resulted in a number of Cromwells being built with Centaur hulls. By January 1943, when production started, Leyland had become the production and design lead for A27 series including subcontractors producing components. Records show that John Fowler & Co. also produced both varieties.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Vauxhall produced two Cromwell pilot models—with a turret similar to that of the Churchill—in the expectation that they would build Cromwells once production of Churchill was terminated in 1943, but Churchill production was extended and Vauxhall withdrew from the Cromwell programme.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The frame was of riveted construction, though welding was used later. The armour plate was then bolted to the frame; large bosses on the outside of the plate were used on the turret.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The suspension was of the Christie type, with long helical springs (in tension) angled back to keep the hull sides low. Of the five road wheels each side, four had shock absorbers. The tracks were driven by sprocketed wheels at the rear and tension adjusted at the front idler, this being standard British practice. Some variants were produced with tracks; later, 15.5-inch tracks were used. As with previous Christie-suspension cruiser tanks, there were no track return rollers, the track being supported instead on the tops of the road wheels, known as the "slack-track" design. The side of the hull was made up of two spaced plates, the suspension units between them, and the outer plate having cutouts for the movement of the road-wheel axles.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The gearbox had five forward and one reverse gears. The first gear was for "confined spaces, on steep inclines or...sharp turns". The transmission was the new Merrit-Brown Z.5, which offered differential steering without clutching or braking, a major advance on previous designs. It gave the Cromwell superb manoeuvrability.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Meteor engine delivered 540 hp at 2,250 rpm giving the Cromwell speed as well as manoeuvrability. This was the maximum rpm, which was limited by governors built into the magnetos. Fuel consumption on "pool" petrol (67 octane) was between 0.5 and 1.5 miles per gallon depending on terrain.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The driver sat on the right in the front of the hull, with the hull gunner on the left, separated by a bulkhead. The driver had two periscopes and a visor in the hull front. The visor could be opened fully or a small "gate" in it opened; in the latter case, a thick glass block protected the driver. A bulkhead with access holes separated the driver and hull gunner from the fighting compartment.


title: Cromwell tank

text: A further bulkhead separated the fighting compartment from the engine and transmission bay. The engine compartment drew cooling air in through the top of each side and the roof and exhausted it to the rear. To allow fording through up to deep water, a flap could be moved to cover the lowermost air outlet. Air for the engine could be drawn from the fighting compartment or the exterior; it was then passed through oil bath cleaners. It was modified so that the exhaust fumes were redirected so that they were not drawn into the fighting compartment, a problem found when tanks were drawn up together, preparing to advance.


title: Cromwell tank

text: In June 1944, the Cromwell saw action during Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy. It had a mixed reception by crews, being faster, and with a lower profile than the Sherman tank, but also being smaller and more cramped. Cromwell had of frontal armour, compared with on the glacis of the early Shermans, though it was unsloped and hence less effective in practice. 123 Cromwells were later produced with applique armour on the hull front that reached .


title: Cromwell tank

text: Following British tank doctrine of the time, the vehicle was designed to fire on the move. The turret offered hydraulically powered turret traverse motors with proportional speed control. Later vehicles fitted an all-round view cupola for the commander to identify and track targets. Both gunner and commander had rotating and pivoting Vickers Gundlach tank periscopes, while fixed episcopes were fitted in the cupola. There was a 7.92 mm Besa machine gun mounted co-axially to the main armament, operated by the gunner. A second was gimbal mounted in the front of the hull, with 45 degrees horizontal and 25 degrees vertical movement. Sighting was by a No. 35 telescope, which was connected through a linkage to the mounting. In the top of the turret was a 2-inch "bombthrower" angled to fire forward. Thirty smoke grenades were carried for it.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Early models of the Cromwell were equipped with the QF 6-pounder (57 mm). Using the new armour-piercing discarding sabot round, which became available in quantity in early 1944, this gun could penetrate over 100 mm of steel armour at ranges on the order of , making it effective against all but the most heavily armoured tanks. However, British tankers had long complained about this weapon's lack of a useful high explosive (HE) round for attacking soft targets like trucks, anti-tank guns and infantry defences. A HE shell had been introduced for the 6-pounder, but it was described as being largely useless—the calibre of the gun was simply too small to carry a useful load of explosive. This was not entirely accidental; British tank policy of the time suggested that different models of the same tank, carrying different specialised weapons, was a better solution to this problem than a single weapon that attempted to do all things.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Experience with the US M3 75 mm gun suggested this thinking was wrong, that a single gun could be used in a "dual purpose" role against both tanks and softer targets. This led Vickers to begin development of a 75 mm weapon of 50 calibres in length, which would fire the same HE shell as the US gun, but with a higher propellant load that would make its anti-tank rounds more effective. However, as examples of this weapon began to arrive in May 1943, it was clear it would not fit into any turret that could be mated to the Cromwell's turret ring.


title: Cromwell tank

text: This problem was eventually solved by the realisation that the 6-pounder could be bored out to 75 mm and fire unmodified US ammunition. While this would lead to less anti-tank performance, this was considered a reasonable trade-off in exchange for the rapid introduction of the HE rounds. The resulting ROQF 75 mm could be easily swapped out with the 6-pounder, and newly built models mounting the gun were known as the Mark V. The ROQF 75 mm would be the primary weapon for the majority of Cromwells produced.


title: Cromwell tank

text: A close support version of the Cromwell was fitted with the QF 95 mm howitzer in place of the 75 mm. This too fired HE, though its primary role was delivering smoke shells, covering the other tanks in the unit.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Some command or OP tanks had the armament removed, leaving space in the turret for further radios. These were fitted with a dummy wooden gun, so as not to appear different to the enemy and attract hostile fire.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Aside from the engine and its ancillaries (fans, radiator, clutch, etc.), both vehicles are very similar designs. While similar however, there were a number of minor variations between Cromwell and Centaur caused by the divergence of design and production.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Increases in Cromwell's design weight from 24 to 27 tons resulted in a reworking of the suspension during the design process, which was not reflected on Centaur. Cromwell had heavier grade suspension with longer suspension arms. Cromwell's shock absorbers and springs were improved against Cavalier, and increased to four (compared with Centaur's three).


title: Cromwell tank

text: The method of track tensioning is a commonly noted difference. Initially, the design based on A24 Cavalier used a worm drive for tensioning. This was noted as being slow to operate, and trapped dirt. BRC&W developed an alternative ratchet mechanism based on the Valentine tank, and this was incorporated into the A27M Cromwell design, also enabling the tank to accept wider tracks. Centaur under Leyland continued without this development.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Some of these differences can be seen in Cromwells built with Centaur hulls, although many were removed with the introduction of the Cromwell Final Specification. This included the Cromwell method of track tensioning.


title: Cromwell tank

text: By comparison, Cavalier can easily be identified by the vehicle's rear armour plate, which incorporates Crusader style horizontal angled exhaust louvres. Cromwell and Centaur both have a flat rear armour plate, with exhaust venting to the top immediately behind the engine deck. For this reason, many Cromwell and Centaur vehicles had a cowl fitted to direct the exhaust gases back where they could not re-enter the tank fighting compartment.


title: Cromwell tank

text: An earlier requirement for a 17-pounder armed tank became more important when the Vickers HV 50 calibre 75mm gun failed to fit on Cromwell. A version of Cromwell mounting the more powerful Ordnance QF 17-pounder (76.2 mm) had been commenced by BRC&W early in the development process. This required a much larger turret ring, which in turn required the hull to be lengthened (with an additional road wheel added to each side for a total of six) and the centre hull section widened. The result was the A30 Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger, but had its limitations and only 200 were produced. While successful, production ceased in favour of the much easier conversion of Sherman Firefly, originally developed as a safeguard for the A30 programme, allowing greater numbers to be fielded.


title: Cromwell tank

text: However, development of the Vickers HV 50 calibre 75mm gun continued, with the bore increasing to fire modified versions of the 17-pounder ammunition. This gun and its ammunition were designed specifically to fit in a turret that a reworked Cromwell-sized design could carry. This became the 77 mm HV with only slightly lower performance than the base 17-pounder. By the time this weapon was ready, a number of other changes had been worked into the tank design, producing the Comet, which replaced both the Cromwell and Challenger.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The A24 design specification had originally been constrained by the available tank engines of the time, delivering only 300 hp and limiting the weight. The evolution to A27M increased the weight slightly, but fitting a 600 hp engine almost doubled the power-to-weight ratio and created a very fast tank. This was combined with the Merrit-Brown gearbox that allowed the tank to steer while still powering both tracks, allowing it to maintain speed while manoeuvring, while tanks like the Sherman or T-34 lost power while turning and necessarily slowed down.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Cromwell was the fastest British tank to serve in the Second World War, with a top speed of . This speed was extremely beneficial in both attack and defence, outmanoeuvring opponents. At least one case is known of vehicle commanders using the vehicle's fast speed to jump large gaps. In the Netherlands, a troop of three Cromwells was able to leap a wide canal when surprised by enemy forces. This speed proved too much for even the Christie suspension and in later models the final drive ratio was changed to lower the top speed to , which was still fast for its time.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Cromwell's armament was changed from the 6-pounder to the dual purpose 75mm. This gave a significant reduction in armour penetration compared to newer 6-pounder Armour-piercing discarding sabot ammunition, which was becoming available, but added the ability to fire High Explosive shells, which were more capable against other targets, such as anti-tank guns. The High Velocity 75mm gun was developed in an attempt to give both good anti-tank and HE performance, but in May 1943 proved too big to be fitted to the Cromwell. This issue led to the development of the A34 Comet, while the gun bore was increased to 76.2mm to gain compatibility with the 17-pounder ammunition albeit with smaller shell casings with less propellant. The lack of a high-velocity weapon proved to be a significant limitation against opponents such as the Tiger, and Cromwell had to rely on mobility.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The dual-purpose 75 mm main gun fired the same ammunition as the US 75 mm gun as used on the Sherman, and was also fitted to the Churchill and other British tanks later in the war, it had around the same HE and armour-piercing capabilities as the 75 mm equipped Sherman tank. The Cromwell's speed and low profile gave an advantage over the Sherman however, giving the tank the element of surprise and making return fire more difficult. Cromwell crews in North-West Europe succeeded in outflanking the heavier and more sluggish German tanks with superior speed, manoeuvrability and reliability.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The armour on the Cromwell ranged from up to thick overall. On all-welded vehicles built by BRC&W, the weight saved by the welding allowed for the fitting of additional appliqué armour plates on the nose, vertical driver's plate and turret front, increasing the maximum thickness there to . These vehicles are identified by their War Department numbers carrying the suffix W, e.g. T121710W. The armour compared well with that of the Sherman, although the Cromwell did not share the Sherman's sloped glacis plate.


title: Cromwell tank

text: While the Cromwell was a match for the majority of Axis tanks in use, it was not a match for the armour and armament of the latest German heavy vehicles developed at the same time. British tank design would go through another stage, the Comet cruiser, before developing the Centurion tank.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Cromwell tank entered front-line service with the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Cromwells landed with the following forces on D+1. They saw extensive action with the British Army, forming part of the 6th Airborne Division, 7th Armoured Division, 11th Armoured Division, Guards Armoured Division, and 1st (Polish) Armoured Division. The tank was also used by the 1st (Czechoslovakian) Independent Armoured Brigade Group as part of the First Canadian Army in Dunkirk.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Cromwells were used as the main tank in the armoured brigades of the 7th Armoured Division, while being used in the armoured reconnaissance regiments of the other British armoured divisions, Guards Armoured Division and 11th Armoured Division, in North-west Europe. It excelled at this task because of its speed and low profile. The tank was praised for its speed and reliability, while its low profile made it harder to spot.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The standard 75mm gun could tackle the majority of German armoured vehicles, and the HE shell was effective, but could not penetrate the front of heavier German tanks such as the Tiger or Panther. Although a rare occurrence on the battlefield, during the Battle of Normandy it was in the British sector where the majority of these German machines were encountered. The issue with the 75mm gun was perhaps most pronounced during the Battle of Villers-Bocage in which the Cromwells were unable to engage German Tiger tanks frontally with any reasonable chance of success. Several Tigers were knocked out by British forces in the battle nonetheless.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The 75mm HV had been intended to rectify this, but prior to entering service it was found to be too large to fit in the Cromwell turret. Instead Cromwells fought alongside the 17pdr armed Sherman Firefly or Challenger, both of which could destroy Panthers and Tigers at standard combat distances. Cromwells (and 75mm armed Shermans) were supplemented by these vehicles at varying ratios per troop of 1/2 to 1/3. Though this provided a good solution to the issue of heavy German tanks, it added an additional level of complexity for battlefield commanders in having to place the 17pdr armed vehicles tactically within a formation. However this complication was not unique to the British Army, the US employed similar methods and faced the same issue with their 75mm armed Sherman tanks.


title: Cromwell tank

text: This situation persisted until the development of the A34 Comet was concluded, mounting the new 77mm HV gun and removing the need for mixed units.


title: Cromwell tank

text: In contrast, the Centaur was chiefly used for training; only those in specialist roles saw action. The Centaur IV Close Support version with a 95 mm howitzer saw service in small numbers as part of the Royal Marine Armoured Support Group on D-Day. Originally intended to be used from landing craft and serve as static pillboxes, these examples retained the engine allowing the Marines to advance the tank inland. A number of Centaurs were also re-purposed as combat engineering vehicles, such as an armoured bulldozer.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The Sherman remained the most common tank in British and other Commonwealth armoured units in Europe. The Cromwell, in turn, was succeeded by small numbers of the Comet tank. This was based on the Cromwell and shared many components but had been designed from the outset to mount a superior gun, the 77 mm tank gun (a version of the 17 pounder with different ammunition). Only the 11th Armoured Division was fully re-equipped with the Comet before the war ended.


title: Cromwell tank

text: During the Korean War, the British had a total of 14 Cromwell tanks, including six of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars Regiment and eight of the 45th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Among them, the Cromwell tanks belonging to the Royal Artillery were artillery observation tanks, which removed the main gun and expanded observation and communication equipment.


title: Cromwell tank

text: In December 1950, 14 tanks were organized into a "Cooper Force" led by Captain Donald Ashley-Cooper, and were deployed to Jangheung, Yangju to support the 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles Regiment, whose duty was to defend northwest of Seoul. On the night of 3 January 1951, the 1st Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles and "Cooper Force" retreated under orders to withdraw from superior command. During the process, 157 soldiers were killed and all tanks were destroyed or abandoned as they escaped along the gorge without protection provided by friendly units.


title: Cromwell tank

text: One of the captured Cromwells operated by the Communist Party was destroyed by a British Centurion tank near Hangang Railway Bridge on February 1. Another captured tank deployed to Wolmido near Incheon by the communists was recaptured by South Korean marines on February 10. American marines helped South Korean marines to repair the recaptured Cromwell for usage. However, the "Marine Cromwell" only rolled for a few days until it was handed back to its original owner, the British.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Fifty-two Centaur I tanks were donated in early 1946 to the Greek Army, during the opening stages of the Greek Civil War but they were kept in storage due to the lack of trained personnel. In 1947, the first Greek officers returned from training courses in the United Kingdom and training of tank crews began. In April 1948, the Centaurs were organised in three Centaur tank companies initially numbered II, IX and XI, but a year later were renumbered 381, 382, 383 and temporarily attached to Reconnaissance Regiments 391, 392, and 393. The Centaurs saw limited service in the war because battles were fought mainly on mountainous areas, but proved useful in supporting infantry units and in defence of inhabited areas. After the end of the war, in October 1949, the three Centaur companies were organised into the 391 Tank Regiment. The Centaurs were replaced by US built M47s and in 1962 were sold and scrapped. One Centaur is preserved in the Greek Army Tank Museum.


title: Cromwell tank

text: The British army, Austria and Jordan used the upgraded Charioteer version of the Cromwell post-war. Jordanian vehicles saw action in conflicts in the Middle-East.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Development of hull types and armaments occurred independently. Hull types applied to all variants. A single mark could cover up to four types, and a type up to six marks making classification complex. Combinations of mark and type were applied by different manufacturers.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Hull types ranged from Type A to Type F. Each type applied a different package of changes to the hull design to different marks of tank. Changing the vehicle type allowed the introduction of changes without changing the overall offensive capability.


title: Cromwell tank

text: A number of further vehicles were based on the Cromwell tank hull, either re-working existing vehicles or built from scratch with the Cromwell as the basis:


title: Cromwell tank

text: The majority of following British tank designs utilised the Meteor engine and Merritt-Brown steering & gearbox combination initially developed for the Cromwell, lasting all the way through Centurion. This proved to be one of the primary elements in the development of the Main Battle Tank.


title: Cromwell tank

text: Around 56 Centaur and Cromwell tanks survive, ranging from scrapyard wrecks to fully restored museum vehicles.


title: Revan

text: Darth Revan, later known simply as Revan, is the player character of the 2003 role-playing video game "" and its by BioWare.


title: Revan

text: A former veteran Jedi knight who lived during the Old Republic Era — approx. 4,000 years before the Skywalker Saga — the Sith Lord Revan forms a Sith Empire to conquer the galaxy, contending with the Republic's armies, only to be betrayed and left for dead by Darth Malak, and subsequently captured by the Jedi, who erase Revan's memories and replace them with a false identity, as part of the Jedi's plan to have Revan rejoin their ranks and help defeat Malak and his Empire. Revan's true identity isn't revealed to the player until later in the game, prior to which their custom character lacks any predefined identity and "Darth Revan" is believed to be dead, returning to villainy or remaining a hero depending upon players' choices and actions.


title: Revan

text: Revan's gender, class, and facial appearance are chosen and customised by the player. Rino Romano provides the voice for the male Revan, while Charity James voices the female Revan. Since the player can choose the gender of Revan, much of the dialogue revolving around the character is gender-neutral with only a few exceptions. However, in some other "Star Wars Legends" media, Revan is called "he" regardless of player choice for the gender.


title: Revan

text: Revan's history is expanded and continued in "", as well as related "Legends" novels and comic books, in particular the 2011 novella "" by Drew Karpyshyn, in which it is revealed that both Revan and Malak were captured by the Sith Emperor prior to the first game's events, and brainwashed into becoming his Sith servants. Although they managed to escape his control, the pair remained loyal to the dark side of the Force and went on to form their own Sith Empire. In the massively multiplayer online game "", a corrupted Force ghost "remnant" of Revan serves as the eponymous antagonist of the "Shadow of Revan" expansion, voiced by Jeff Bennett. Following the release of "Knights of the Old Republic", Revan quickly became a fan favorite, and is among the most popular non-film characters in the "Star Wars" franchise, with the character's arc meeting with very positive reviews from critics. Although all works depicting the character became part of the non-canonical "Star Wars" Expanded Universe (known as "Star Wars Legends") in 2014, Revan has had a few canonical references in canon media since 2019.


title: Revan

text: In April 2014, as a result of its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm rebranded most of the licensed "Star Wars" novels, comics, and video games produced since the originating 1977 film "Star Wars" as "Star Wars Legends" and declared them non-canon to the franchise.


title: Revan

text: Revan is depicted as a former Jedi who, along with his best friend Alek (later Darth Malak), left the Order to lead the fight in the Mandalorian Wars due to the Jedi's inaction. One year after the end of the Mandalorian Wars, Darth Revan and Malak returned to Republic space at the head of a massive invasion fleet. Calling themselves the Sith, they declared war on the Republic. Since their intention was to unite the galaxy under one ruler so they could attack the ancient Sith Empire, they avoided attacking key places such as Coruscant, Onderon, and Dantooine. The Sith won the battle, but as Revan prepared to duel with the Jedi who boarded his flagship, Malak, in the hopes of destroying both Revan and the Jedi, betrayed his Master, ordering the ships under his command to fire on Revan's flagship's bridge. Though Malak believed himself to have been successful in killing Revan, he survived. Revan, severely injured from the turbolaser blasts, was then taken by Bastila Shan and her Jedi strike team to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine where the Jedi Council members chose to wipe Revan's memory, and imprint him with a false identity that the player creates at the beginning of the game, choosing the character's gender and appearance (canonically, Revan is male).


title: Revan

text: "Knights of the Old Republic" begins with Revan awaking on a starship under attack. Throughout the game, Revan learns of his forgotten history and assembles a band of followers as he searches for "Star Maps" to lead him back to the Star Forge, which Revan used to make his army. Revan eventually encounters Malak, who reveals his former identity as a Sith Lord. Malak later captures Bastila and turns her to the dark side. Her ultimate fate depends on player's choice to follow the light side or the dark side throughout the game. Canonically, Revan remains loyal to the light side, defeats Malak, and destroys the Star Forge. The last scene of the game's canonical ending shows the main characters, including Revan, being honored by the Republic at the site of the temple on Rakata Prime; a picture of later events has emerged from subsequent games and novels.


title: Revan

text: The sequel "" reveals that a year after the defeat of Malak, Revan recalled a threat from his time as a Sith Lord, and left known space to deal with it. Clues to the nature of the threat emerge from in-game dialogue with non-player characters (including Canderous and Kreia); this varies according to the player character's alignment and gender.


title: Revan

text: Prior to the events of the sequel, Revan bade farewell to the nine comrades who had accompanied him on his quest, knowing that none of them could safely accompany him in the places he had to go to; the only NPC with a certain knowledge of where and why Revan left (his navigation droid, T3-M4) won't divulge the information. Also, at the ancient tomb of Ludo Kressh in Korriban, the Jedi Exile fights a silent vision of Darth Revan, in which he appears to wield two lightsabers, one red and one violet. The game lists the color crystal of the lightsaber the player obtains from them as a unique red color. This is Revan's only physical appearance in the entire game. Additionally, the Jedi Exile can speak with several companions and non-player characters within the game to learn more about the history of Revan, and his journey into the Unknown Regions.


title: Revan

text: Revan appears as the primary focus of "Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan", a tie-in book to "Star Wars: The Old Republic" that was released by Bioware and EA on December 20, 2011.


title: Revan

text: Revan re-emerges in "Star Wars: The Old Republic" after a team of Republic heroes manages to rescue him from the Emperor's Maelstrom Prison with the help of the ghost of the Jedi Exile. It is revealed that Revan was kept alive for centuries as a prisoner by the Emperor to channel Revan's strength in the Force. Revan's link with the Emperor was two-way, however, and he was able to keep the Emperor's darker urges in check, thereby preventing the Emperor from unleashing his full power upon the galaxy before the Republic and Jedi Order had grown enough again to be able to stand a chance against the Sith Empire. Though thankful to the Republic for rescuing him, Revan decides to fight the Emperor on his own terms and takes control of a Rakatan installation called "The Foundry" and engineers a droid army (led by HK-47) programmed to identify and eliminate any target with Sith DNA, which not only included Dark Lords of the Sith but also the majority of citizens of the Empire. Revan's plan is thwarted when a group of Imperials manages to infiltrate the Foundry and destroy the droid army and HK-47 before confronting Revan. After a vicious battle, Revan is defeated but disappears before a killing blow can be delivered.


title: Revan

text: Revan appears again in the "Legacy of Rakata Prime" flashpoint as the mastermind behind the conspiracy in the "Forged Alliances" plotline. He is the primary antagonist of the fourth digital expansion to "The Old Republic", entitled "Shadow of Revan", in which he returns to destroy the Republic and Empire. He leads a group of followers known as the Order of Revan or "Revanites", into infiltrating both galactic powers and influencing them into annihilating each other. Some Republic and Imperial forces also declare themselves loyal to Revan. Revan then draws the Empire and Republic into a battle with his Revanite ships over the planet Rishi, so that neither the Republic nor the Empire can interfere when he confronts the Emperor. However, his plan is thwarted when the player character sends a communication to Republic and Imperial ships informing them of Revan's plan and telling them to cease all fire.


title: Revan

text: Revan is later cornered on Yavin 4 where he tries to raise the Emperor but is confronted and defeated by the player and an alliance of Republic and Imperial characters. After the Emperor makes his presence known and leaves Yavin 4, an apparition of Revan appears and reveals that when he was defeated in the Foundry, only his light side became one with the Force, while his dark side, fueled by hate for the Emperor, survived, setting off the "Forged Alliances" plotline. The two sides of Revan, one Jedi, the other Sith, then reunite, with his now-whole spirit warning the player and his allies that they must undo what he has done, lest otherwise the Emperor will see his evil plans through and everything will be lost.


title: Revan

text: In the Echoes of Oblivion story, Revan's spirit returns to aid the player character in defeating the duplicate spirit of the Sith Emperor before he can possess Satele Shan.


title: Revan

text: In celebration of "KotOR" 15th anniversary, Electronic Arts added the Jedi Knight variant of Revan to "" as a playable character on October 18, 2018. Months later, the Sith version, Darth Revan, was included in the game as the first unlockable Dark Side mythic character, followed by Darth Malak.


title: Revan

text: Revan was originally slated to appear in the animated series "". In the third-season episode "Ghosts of Mortis," Revan would have appeared as a Sith Lord alongside Darth Bane as advisors to the Son, a dark side embodiment. Revan was cut from the episode in late production since their presence would conflict with Lucas' view of the Force at the time.


title: Revan

text: The visual dictionary guide for the 2019 film "" contains a reference to one of the Sith Eternal's legions being named after Darth Revan.


title: Revan

text: In 2007, Hasbro toys released an action figure of Darth Revan. Revan received the second-highest number of votes in the 2006 "ToyFare" Fan's Choice Poll to determine the most requested "Star Wars" action figure. The highest number of votes was for Quinlan Vos, a Jedi who appeared in comic books and who Hasbro had already slated to be released in 2007 before the poll was conducted.


title: Revan

text: In 2014, Lego released a Darth Revan Minifigure as a free-with-purchase promotional item from May 3–5.


title: Revan

text: Revan won the 2015 Fan Choice Poll at San Diego Comic-Con, with a Darth Revan (from "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic") figure released in late 2016.


title: Revan

text: A GameStop exclusive Funko Pop! of Darth Revan from "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" was released in July 2020.


title: Revan

text: Revan was chosen by IGN as the 12th greatest "Star Wars" character, as well as also being chosen by IGN's Jesse Schedeen as, along with Darth Malak, the fifth best "Star Wars" villain. IGN's readers chose Revan as their 7th top "Star Wars" character. UGO Networks put the character as the ninth top "Star Wars" expanded universe character. Jesse Schedeen listed Revan as one of the "Star Wars" character that she wanted in "Soulcalibur", calling him "one of the rare Expanded Universe characters that unquestionably stands alongside the best of the movie characters." Robert Workman, from GameDaily, listed the character as one of his favourite "Star Wars" video game characters.


title: Revan

text: Although Revan ultimately did not make the cut, "Game Informer" staff considered his inclusion in their "30 characters that defined a decade" collection, with Matt Miller saying, "in "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic", the looming shadow of [Revan's] presence hangs over everything, and the Revan-centric twist at the heart of the story shocked the gaming world."


title: Revan

text: "Edge" considered the revelation that the player character is Darth Revan to be one of the most jaw-dropping moments in video games. GameDaily's Chris Buffa listed the moment as the fourth top video game spoiler, and Robert Workman listed the moment as one of the eight BioWare moments that shocked him. Connor Sheridan of "GamesRadar" described Revan on remake's trailer as "looking sinister as ever".


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Ian James Thorpe, (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian along with fellow swimmer Emma McKeon. With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in his hometown of Sydney.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: At the age of 14, Thorpe became the youngest male ever to represent Australia, and his victory in the 400 metre freestyle at the 1998 Perth World Championships made him the youngest-ever individual male World Champion. After that victory, Thorpe dominated the 400 m freestyle, winning the event at every Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific Swimming Championships until his break after the 2004 Olympics in Athens. At the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, he became the first person to win six gold medals in one World Championship. Aside from 13 individual long-course world records, Thorpe anchored the Australian relay teams, numbering the victories in the 4 × 100 m and the 4 × 200 m freestyle relays in Sydney among his five relay world records. His wins in the 200 m and 400 m and his bronze in the 100 m freestyle at the 2004 Summer Olympics made him the only male to have won medals in the 100–200–400 combination. He acquired the nickname "Thorpedo" because of his speed in swimming. Thorpe announced his retirement from competitive swimming in November 2006, citing waning motivation; he made a brief comeback in 2011 and 2012.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: In total, Thorpe has won eleven World Championship gold medals; this is the fifth-highest number of gold medals won by any male swimmer. Thorpe was the first person to have been named "Swimming World" Swimmer of the Year four times, and was the Australian Swimmer of the Year from 1999 to 2003. His athletic achievements made him one of Australia's most popular athletes, and he was recognised as the Young Australian of the Year in 2000.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Born in Sydney, Thorpe grew up in the suburb of Milperra and hailed from a sporting family. His father Ken was a promising cricketer at junior level, representing Bankstown District Cricket Club in Sydney's district competition. A talented batsman, he once topped the season's batting averages ahead of former Australian captain Bob Simpson. However, paternal pressure detracted from Ken's enjoyment of cricket, and he retired at the age of 26. Thorpe's mother Margaret played A-grade netball, but he did not inherit his parents' ball skills. His elder sister Christina was advised to take up swimming to strengthen a broken wrist, so by chance, the five-year-old Thorpe followed her into the pool. Due to his unhappy experiences, Ken Thorpe regarded enjoyment as the most critical aspect of his children's participation in sport. A large baby, Thorpe weighed and measured in length at birth.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: As a young child, Thorpe was sidelined by an allergy to chlorine. As a result, he did not swim in his first race until a school carnival at the age of seven. The allergy forced Thorpe to swim with his head out of the water; despite this ungainly technique, he won the race, primarily because of his significant size advantage. Thorpe gradually overcame the ailment and progressed to the captaincy of New South Wales for the Australian Primary Schools Championships in 1994. He subsequently won nine individual gold medals at the New South Wales Short Course Age Championships in September of the same year. In 1995, Thorpe started his secondary education at East Hills Boys Technology High School and switched coaches to swim alongside his sister under the tutelage of Doug Frost. It was a busy year for the family; Christina was selected for the Australian team to compete at the 1995 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Atlanta. Now six feet tall, Ian competed at his first Australian Age Championships, winning bronze medals in the 200 m and 400 m freestyle. He won all ten events at the New South Wales Age Championships.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe competed at the 1996 Australian Age Championships in Brisbane, winning five gold, two silver and two bronze medals. His times in the 400 m freestyle and 200 m backstroke qualified him for the Australian Championships, which doubled as selection trials for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Frost knew that Thorpe had no realistic chance of making the top two in any event, which would have meant Olympic selection at only 13 years and six months. He sent Thorpe to Sydney merely to gain competition experience at senior national level. As expected, Thorpe missed selection; he finished 23rd in the 400 m freestyle and 36th in the 200 m backstroke. At the end of the year, Thorpe qualified for the Australian Short Course Championships. It was another chance to gain national selection, as the event served as the selection trials for the 1997 FINA World Swimming Championships. Thorpe qualified in second place in the heats of the 400 m individual medley and reached his first national final. However, he swam more slowly in the final and missed selection.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: At the New South Wales Championships in January 1997, Thorpe's time of 3 min 59.43 s in the 400 m was eight seconds faster than his previous personal best; it made him the first 14-year-old to cover the distance in less than four minutes on Australian soil. Ranked fourth for the event countrywide, Thorpe went into the Australian Championships in Adelaide as a serious contender for selection in the national team for the 1997 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. With a top-three finish and a specific qualifying time required for selection, Thorpe focused on the 400 m freestyle after injuries to world record holder Kieren Perkins and Daniel Kowalski; both had won Olympic medals in the event. Thorpe went on to win bronze behind 16-year-old Queenslander Grant Hackett, setting a new personal best of 3 min 53.44 s. The time was a world record for his age group and the race was the first of many battles with Hackett.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Aged 14 years and 5 months, Thorpe became the 463rd and youngest ever male to be selected for the Australian team, surpassing John Konrads' record by one month. Frost said that Thorpe's selection catalysed his eventual focus on freestyle. Thorpe continued his good form at the Australian Age Championships. He contested all twelve events, winning ten individual gold and two bronze medals. He set six Australian records in the process.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: In June 1997, two months before the Pan Pacific Championships, Thorpe required an appendix operation, which caused him to miss two weeks of training. Upon reaching Japan, Thorpe placed fourth in his heat of the 200 m freestyle with a new personal best time of 1 min 51.46 s. Thorpe's time was not enough to qualify for the final, but earned him selection in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team. Along with teammates Michael Klim, Ian van der Wal and Hackett, Thorpe claimed silver, making him the youngest ever Pan Pacific medalist. In his first individual final at international level, Thorpe was fifth at the 300 m mark, but fought back to claim silver in the 400 m freestyle behind Hackett in a time of 3 min 49.64 s. His finishing burst was to become a trademark, and his time would have been enough to win silver at the Atlanta Olympics. In October 1997, a few days before his fifteenth birthday, Thorpe competed in qualifying trials in Brisbane for the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth. Thorpe gained selection for the world championships by finishing fourth and second in the 200 m and 400 m freestyle respectively. He set new personal bests in both events.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe's first international appearance in his home country, at the 1998 World Championships in Perth, began with the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Swimming the third leg after Klim and Hackett, Thorpe broke away from 200 m butterfly Olympic champion Tom Malchow to set a split time of 1 min 47.67 s, just 0.26 seconds slower than Klim's winning time in the 200 m final. By the end of Thorpe's leg, the Australians were two seconds ahead of the world record pace, and three seconds ahead of the Americans, having extended the lead by two body lengths. Although anchorman Kowalski finished outside the world record, it was the first time that Australia had won the event at the global level since 1956. Thorpe was ranked fourth in the world before the 400 m final, which Hackett led from the outset. Hackett established a comfortable 2.29 s lead over Thorpe by the 300 m mark, and although Thorpe reduced the margin to 1.53 s at the 350 m mark, Hackett led until Thorpe passed him on the final stroke. Thorpe's time was the fourth fastest in history and made him the youngest ever male individual world champion, aged 15 years and 3 months.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: As a result of the media attention generated by his win on home soil, Thorpe received multiple offers for television commercials and was often surrounded by autograph hunters. He became a high-profile supporter of the Children's Cancer Institute, after his sister Christina's future brother-in-law Michael Williams became gravely ill with cancer.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe's next competition was in March at the Australian Championships in Melbourne, which were selection trials for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. Thorpe's improvement continued when he defeated Klim in the 200 m freestyle in 1 min 47.24 s, faster than Klim's winning time at the World Championship two months earlier. Thorpe's time was a Commonwealth record and with it, he secured his first national title. He then claimed the 400 m freestyle title from Hackett and clocked 50.36 s in the 100 m freestyle. His time earned silver in his first 100 m race at the national level, gaining him Commonwealth selection in three individual events.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe's rise continued when the Australians arrived in Kuala Lumpur during September for the Commonwealth Games. Thorpe's first event was the 200 m freestyle, where he led throughout to record a time just one hundredth of a second outside Giorgio Lamberti's world record. He then combined with Klim, Kowalski and Matt Dunn in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay to break the world record of the Unified Team set in 1992 by 0.09 s. Thorpe's run ended when a personal best of 50.21 s in the 100 m freestyle was only sufficient for fourth place, but he returned to victory with the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team. He claimed a fourth gold in the 400 m freestyle, setting another personal best, just 0.55 s slower than Kieren Perkins' 1994 mark.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe left school at the end of the year after completing Year 10. His decision caused concerns that concentrating on swimming alone could lead to burn out. Thorpe disagreed, pointing to his informal search for knowledge, stating that "Swimming is a small part of my life". His impact in the swimming community was acknowledged when he became the youngest male swimmer to be named as the "Swimming World" Swimmer of the Year.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: The year 1999 began with heavy media expectations that Thorpe would inevitably break both 200 m and 400 m world records, given his continuing physical growth. The first opportunity came in late March at the 1999 Australian Championships in Brisbane, which doubled as a selection event for the 1999 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Thorpe again won the 400 m, but Perkins' record eluded him, this time by just 0.05 s. Hackett turned the tables in the 200 m event, passing Thorpe in the final 50 m to win Thorpe's title. Although both were outside Lamberti's mark, Hackett went on to break it the following night in a relay event. Thorpe finished the Championships by continuing his improvement in the 100 m freestyle, posting a time of 49.98 s, his first under the 50 s barrier. The Australian team then travelled to Hong Kong for the 1999 World Short Course Championships, where Thorpe broke Lamberti's mark in the 200 m freestyle, the longest standing world record at the time. However, Hackett defeated him in the 400 m. This was the start of a three-year phase where Thorpe was to set his 13 individual long course world records. He led the men's relay team to unprecedented success in relay events, scoring historic victories over the Americans. Thorpe was to peak in 2001 when he became the first person to win six gold medals at one world championships, setting three world records and helping Australia top the medal tally at a global meet for the first time since 1956. In this period, he was named "Swimming World" Swimmer of the Year three times.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: The 1999 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships were held in August at Sydney Olympic Park, and were viewed as a rehearsal for the 2000 Summer Olympics to be held in the same venue. With Thorpe expected to deliver world records at his first international meet in Sydney, the event was shown live on Australian television for the first time. The opening night saw him pitted against Hackett and South Africa's Ryk Neethling in the 400 m freestyle final. The trio reached the 200 m mark in a group, on world record pace, before Thorpe broke away, recording a split time 1.86 s ahead of world-record pace at 300 m. He extended his lead to four body lengths by the 350 m mark and finished in a time of 3 min 41.83 s, cutting almost two seconds from the world record, and covering the second half in almost the same time as the first. Talbot reacted to the performance by dubbing Thorpe as "the greatest swimmer we've [Australia] ever had", whilst four-time American Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines, commentating for NBC, said "...he went into a balls-out sprint at 250 – and I have never seen anything like that...I have been around swimming a long time and it's the most amazing swim I've ever seen, hands down." A formula used by the International Swimming Statisticians Association to compare world records in different events gave his performance the highest score of all current world records. Thorpe promptly donated the A$25,000 prize money for breaking the first world record in the pool to charity.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Later the same night, Thorpe anchored the Australians to a historic victory in the 4 × 100 m freestyle final, the first time the United States had lost the event. Thorpe set an Australian record relay split of 48.55 s. Even taking into account a 0.6–0.7 s for a flying relay start, his split time was almost 1 s faster than his individual best of 49.98 s. It was to be the first of many occasions in which he would anchor the Australian relay teams to victory over the Americans, with splits consistently faster than his equivalent individual times. The following night, in the semi-finals of the 200 m freestyle, Thorpe broke Hackett's world record by 0.33 s, clocking 1 min 46.34 s. The next day in the final, he again broke the record, lowering it to 1 min 46.0 s. He finished his competition by leading off the 4 × 200 m freestyle team with Klim, Hackett and Bill Kirby to victory. Their time lowered their own world record by more than three seconds, completing Thorpe's fourth world record in four nights.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Immediately after the Pan Pacific Championships, Thorpe's management announced his signing to Adidas for an undisclosed six-figure sum, stating that he would race in their new bodysuit. This presented a dilemma, as the national team was sponsored and wore outfits designed by Speedo, leading to months of protracted discussions and uncertainty. To compound his commercial difficulties, Thorpe had an uncertain end to the sporting year when, in October, he broke a bone in his ankle whilst jogging. However his performance throughout the year was recognised when he was again named as the World Swimmer of the Year by "Swimming World", and by Swimming Australia as its Swimmer of the Year. In a wider arena, he was named Young Australian of the Year, ABC Sports Star of the Year, and Male Athlete of the Year at the Australian Sports Awards.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe started 2000 looking to add a third individual event to his Olympic schedule. He explored his options by contesting the 1500 m freestyle at the New South Wales Championships in January, which he won. Thorpe embarked on a European FINA World Cup tour to hone his racecraft, but this was overshadowed by comments made by German head coach Manfred Thiesmann accusing him of using steroids. Thiseman claimed that Thorpe's physical attributes were symptomatic of steroid use and that his ability to exceed prior records believed to be drug-fuelled made his feats worthy of suspicion. Thorpe's difficulties heightened at the subsequent German leg of the tour in Berlin, when a standoff over a drug-test arose when officials wanted to take an unsealed sample due to lack of containers. After the standoff was resolved, Thorpe proceeded to cut more than 1.5 s from his world short course record in the 200 m freestyle. Given the context of the race, Thorpe rated it as his best-ever performance, ahead of his victories at Olympic and World level. On returning from Europe, Thorpe faced further uncertainty until he was granted permission to wear his Adidas suit instead of the Australian uniforms provided by Speedo.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: With the past uncertainties resolved, Thorpe proceeded to the Olympic selection trials at Sydney Olympic Park in May 2000. He again broke his 400 m world record on the first night of racing, lowering it to 3 min 41.33 s to earn his first Olympic selection. The following day, he lowered his 200 m world record to 1 min 45.69 s in the semi-finals, before lowering it again to 1 min 45.51 s in the final. His attempt to secure a third individual berth failed after he finished fourth in the final of the 100 m and withdrew from the 1500 m.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Entering the Olympics, the Australian public expected Thorpe to deliver multiple world records and gold medals as a formality; Sydney's "Daily Telegraph" posted a front-page spread headlined "Invincible". Thorpe cruised through the heats of the 400 m on the first morning of competition, posting a new Olympic record and shortening bookmakers' odds to 50–1. By the time the final was held that night, the pressure had intensified—the host nation had yet to win its first gold medal. Thorpe led throughout, and although Italy's Massimiliano Rosolino was within a body length at the 300 m mark, Thorpe's finishing kick extended the final margin to three body lengths. This set a new world record of 3 min 40.59 s. Secret tests carried out by the Italian National Olympic Committee prior to the Olympics later showed that Rosolino had abnormal levels of human growth hormone. Rosolino aside, Thorpe had left bronze medallist Klete Keller fifteen metres in arrears.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe lined up later in the night alongside Klim, Chris Fydler and Ashley Callus to anchor the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, an event which the Americans had never lost at Olympic level. The third leg ended with Australia only an arm's length ahead of the United States. Thorpe timed his dive much better than Gary Hall Jr., and surfaced a body length ahead. Hall's sprinting ability allowed him to open a lead by the final turn, but Thorpe's finishing kick overhauled him in the final metres, sparking wild celebrations amongst the partisan crowd.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Prior to the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, Hall posted on his blog: "My biased opinion says that we will smash them (Australia's 4x100m team) like guitars. Historically the U.S. has always risen to the occasion. But the logic in that remote area of my brain says it won't be so easy for the United States to dominate the waters this time." The Australian team responded to Hall's remarks after the race by playing air guitar on the pool deck. Hall recalled the race, saying, "I don't even know how to play the guitar...I consider it the best relay race I've ever been part of. I doff my cap to the great Ian Thorpe. He had a better finish than I had." Another member of Australia's victorious 4x100 team, Michael Klim, recalled that "Hall was the first swimmer to come over and congratulate us. Even though he dished it out, he was a true sportsman".


title: Ian Thorpe

text: When Thorpe broke the 200 m freestyle Olympic record in the heats the following morning, his main rival Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands (with World No. 2 ranked and teammate Michael Kim bypassing the 200 metres) conceded defeat. However, van den Hoogenband showed his hand in the semi-finals by cutting more than a second off his personal best, to set a new world record of 1 min 45.35 s. Thorpe qualified second with a personal best of his own, 0.02 s slower, and was under immense pressure to win the final the following day after his double gold on the first night. Van den Hoogenband started quickly and Thorpe chased him, reaching the 100 m mark just 0.04 s behind. Both swimmers turned at 150 m in identical times. As a result of starting harder than usual, Thorpe faded as van den Hoogenband drew away to claim gold and equal his world record, stunning the home crowd. Thorpe touched in 1 min 45.83 s, the first time that he had swum slower in the final than in the qualifying rounds. Thorpe would never lose to van den Hoogenband in a long course 200 metres race again.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe returned to victory when he led off the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay the following night, setting up a 10 m lead over American Scott Goldblatt in the first leg. Although Thorpe was unable to reclaim the individual world record, he, Klim, Kirby and Todd Pearson lowered their world record to 7 min 07.05 s, over five seconds ahead of the Americans—the largest winning margin in an Olympic relay for half a century. Thorpe rounded off his Olympics by swimming in the heats of the 4 × 100 m medley relay, and collected a silver medal when the finals quartet finished behind the Americans. Thorpe's performances as Australia's leading medalist for the Games were recognised when the Australian Olympic Committee granted him the honour of carrying the flag at the closing ceremony. With three gold and two silver medals, Thorpe was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Olympic Games. At year's end, he was again named by Swimming Australia as the Swimmer of the Year, but van den Hoogenband usurped him as the leading male swimmer chosen by "Swimming World Magazine".


title: Ian Thorpe

text: With the 2001 Australian Championships held in Hobart in March, Thorpe added the 800 m freestyle to his repertoire, after FINA had added the event for the 2001 World Aquatics Championships. Thorpe began his campaign by successfully defending his 400 m title with a time just 0.17 s outside his world record. The following night in the 800 m event, he drew away from Hackett in the last 100 m to break Kieren Perkins' 1994 world record by over four seconds. He earned his third title by cutting 0.66 s from van den Hoogenband's 200 m world record to set a new mark of 1 min 44.69 s. This performance made him the third male after John Konrads and Tim Shaw to hold world records over three distances simultaneously. His subsequent victory in the 100 m freestyle in a new personal best of 49.05 s made him the first since Konrads in 1959 to hold all Australian freestyle titles from 100 m to 800 m. This indicated that he could swim faster at the subsequent World Championships in Fukuoka, where he was looking to regain the ascendancy from van den Hoogenband.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe arrived in Fukuoka having been chosen by broadcaster TV Asahi as the marketing drawcard of the event. With the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay being held after the 400 m freestyle on the first night, Thorpe appeared to be conserving energy when he reached the 200 m mark two seconds outside his world record. Although he was 0.93 s behind at the final turn, a final 50 m burst in 24.36 s saw him cut a further 0.42 s from his world record. The relay saw him dive in fractionally ahead of American Jason Lezak after Klim, Callus and Pearson had completed the first three legs. Thorpe fell behind in the early half of the leg before kicking away in the closing stages, to seal gold with his fastest-ever relay split of 47.87 s. In the 800 m final, he shadowed Hackett for the first 750 m, staying within a body length. He then broke clear to win by a body length, lowering his world record by over two seconds. The 200 m freestyle rematch with van den Hoogenband provided Thorpe with a chance to rectify his strategy from the Olympics; this time he allowed the Dutchman to lead through the first 100 m. Thorpe pulled even at the 150 m mark and then broke away towards the finishing wall two body lengths clear. He lowered his world record to 1 min 44.06 s in the process, prompting van den Hoogenband to raise his arm aloft.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe's winning streak was interrupted in the 100 m freestyle when his personal best of 48.81 s placed him fourth, but he returned to form in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Anchoring the team of Klim, Hackett and Kirby, the Australians lowered their world record time by more than two seconds, leaving the Italians more than six seconds in arrears. Having overtaken Klim as Australia's leading 100 m freestyle swimmer, Thorpe was entrusted with anchoring the 4 × 100 m medley relay team on 28 July. After Matt Welsh, Regan Harrison and Geoff Huegill had finished their legs, Thorpe's change left him half a body length behind the new 100 m world champion Anthony Ervin of the United States. The Americans were expected to win, and with his typically slow start, Thorpe turned a body length behind with 50 m remaining. With an American victory seeming inevitable, Thorpe managed to accelerate and deprive Ervin of the lead in the last 5 m. This made Thorpe the only swimmer to have won six gold medals at a World Championships, and the first since Shaw in 1974 to win the 200–400–800 treble. His performances formed the basis for Australia's gold medal win over the United States 13–9. It was also the first time since the 1956 Summer Olympics that Australia had topped the medal tally at a global meet. Thorpe's achievements led to predictions that he could match Mark Spitz's seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics, which he played down.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Thorpe began competition in 2002 at the Australian Championships in Brisbane in March, which were used to select the team for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the 2002 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. After his record six gold medals in Fukuoka, the meet was surrounded by further expectations of world records and speculation that he would match Spitz's seven gold medals. His winning time in the 400 m was the second fastest in history, but such was the expectation on him that his failure to break a world record was the talking point. He claimed the 100 m and 200 m events in times outside his best, making it the first time that he had failed to break a world record at a major meet since 1999. He also experimented by adding the 100 m backstroke to his repertoire, placing second. This earned him a Commonwealth spot in a seventh event, leading to further media speculation that he could match Spitz.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: By this time, Thorpe's relationship with Frost was beginning to unravel. Thorpe had always insisted that his swimming was about enjoyment and improving himself in setting faster times, rather than victory or defeat. This contrasted with Frost, who had a more aggressive and combative mindset, often making bold public statements. Thorpe ignored Frost's advice and bulked up his upper body by a further 5 kg to 105 kg, making him the heaviest elite swimmer in history. His reasoning that the strength gains would outweigh any loss in flexibility raised concerns over his physiological strategy. On the first night in Manchester, Thorpe again lowered his 400 m mark by 0.09 s to 3 min 40.08 s, which remains the fastest ever 400m swim not swum in an LZR Racer before anchoring the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team to another gold. Prior to the 200 m final, Thorpe was seen arguing with Frost in the warm-up area. Thorpe won, but was unusually angry at having failed to lower his previous best, publicly stating that he "wasn't with it" and that he had "one of the worst warm-ups ever". Thorpe did manage to lower his personal best in the 100 m freestyle to 48.73 s en route to his fourth gold, and anchored the 4 × 200 m freestyle and 4 × 100 m medley relays to comfortable victories. When he collected a silver in his first international race in the 100 m backstroke with another personal best behind world champion Matt Welsh, he was forced to rebuff media comparisons to Spitz. He emphasised personal performance, stating "I think it's a limiting attitude to be competing against other people when you can be challenging yourself". Despite Thorpe's assertion that he could not match Spitz, Frost predicted that Thorpe could win nine golds at one Olympics. In spite of the media disappointment, Thorpe's six gold medals equalled the record set by Susie O'Neill, completing all in Games or World record time. As a result, he was awarded the honour of carrying the flag at the closing ceremony.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: The Pan Pacific Championships followed in Yokohama less than a month later, with media speculation about Thorpe and Frost overshadowing the racing. Thorpe began his campaign with a victory over Hackett in the 400 m freestyle in a time five seconds outside his world record. Afterwards, he revealed that both he and Hackett had deliberately conserved energy for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay later in the night. Australia subsequently won the relay, with Thorpe again overtaking Jason Lezak in the last 50 m. He subsequently won the 200 m freestyle, and anchored the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay to victory to take his tally to four golds. After qualifying second in the 100 m freestyle, Thorpe came from fourth at the 50 m mark win his fifth gold in a time of 48.84 s. Thorpe's run ended in the 4 × 100 m medley relay final, when despite setting the second fastest ever relay split of 47.20 s, Australia were defeated.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: After the 2002 Pan Pacific Championships, Thorpe announced that he was splitting with Frost to train with one of his assistants, Tracey Menzies, who had no prior international experience. Admitting that tension existed between him and Frost, Thorpe asserted that the split was amicable. He cited waning motivation for the split, stating "I decided I either had to make the change or it was to walk away from the sport". The retired Talbot expressed concerns that Thorpe was making a decision whilst he was physically and emotionally drained, while other coaches felt that the new relationship would end up with Thorpe, rather than Menzies, making the decisions. Despite a turbulent year, he was again named by "Swimming World" as its World Swimmer of the Year.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: Along with the switch of coaches, Thorpe indicated that he would put more focus on improving his sprinting ability. He thus dropped the 800 m freestyle despite being the reigning world champion and record holder. During this period, his times in the 400 m and 200 m freestyle deteriorated, and both he and Menzies were criticised. The criticism continued to mount during their partnership, particularly during the build-up to the 2004 Olympics. Following his victory in the 200 and 400 events in Athens, Thorpe said that his results justified his decision, despite posting substantially faster times as a young swimmer under Frost.


title: Ian Thorpe

text: The first major test of Thorpe's partnership with Menzies came at the Australian Championships held in Sydney in March. Thorpe did not threaten any of his world records, completing the 400 m and 200 m freestyle more than two and one seconds respectively off his best. Despite defeating Hackett in both races to retain his titles, he later admitted that he was "pretty disappointed" with his performances. When he tied with Ashley Callus in a time of 49.05 s, he was criticised by "The Sydney Morning Herald" which stated "The measure of Thorpe's sprinting ability is that he could only match the efforts of a virus-riddled Callus". Thorpe found some relief by setting a new Commonwealth record of 2 min 00.11 s in his first long course 200 m individual medley outing, the fifth fastest time in the past year. Thorpe attracted further criticism when he withdrew from the inaugural Duel in the Pool with a medical complaint, despite travelling overseas for commercial and charity work.