A painting by Ian Thorpe will go under the hammer in Hong Kong next month. Its is estimated that My Pain, My Gain could fetch between $US7,700 and $10,300 when it is offered to buyers at Sotheby's Sport in Art auction on October 5.
The acrylic on canvas measures two metres by four metre and shows Thorpe cutting through the water with tiny human figures all over him. "When I was a kid I used to imagine within my body there were all these mini people and the people in my goggles were the control room," Thorpe told reporters. "They were kind of like lemmings and they used to power everything in my body. I was always whipping them to make them work harder. That was my form of visualisation."
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Right to Play China charity, which works to enhance the health and education of young people through sport.
