The headline in the Folha de Sao Paulo reflects well the way in which the wider world is viewing Ian Thorpe's comeback: in terms of potential impact on those the Australian may face. Ian Thorpe is Back; Tries to Face Up To Cielo, it reads.

In Germany, "Thorpe - Biedermann's new rival" states the headline in a paper published in Saxony, home state of the man who took out Thorpey's 400m free world record in an arena X-Glide in 2009. The Australian has no intention of racing the 400m seriously, let alone attempting to go 0.01sec than he did first time round, Biedermann's standard in a suit now banned standing at 3:40.06.

Thorpe sent Biedermann a congratulatory message after losing his 400m world record to the German star of Rome 2009. "It would be a great pleasure to swim against him and I'm curious to see how fast he can go," Biedermann told DPA on the eve of the duel in the pool with Britain in Essen. "Time will tell whether he actually does race the 200m. I could never complain of a shortage of competition."

In France, "A Big Customer for Agnel", and in Korea a simple reminder that none of this will be easy: "Swimmer Park training hard". And doing so in Thorpe's back yard while he may be away in ... Abu Dhabi. Calmer comparisons can be found in the US, where most media mentions of Michael Phelps on Thorpe comeback day had nothing to do with the Australian and everything to do with the American's entry into the games market.

Meanwhile, Thorpe was back at his old game. He swam what might have been the most public 5km training session of his career at the Sydney Aquatic Centre named after him. He emerged to tell the attendant media: "I feel good about this (comeback). I don't feel all that different from what I did yesterday. I knew I'd have everyone here watching this morning, so I had to make sure I worked my turns a little bit better. I felt good, and while this was an average session for me, I was happy with it. I'll probably feel totally buggered by the end of the week."

Plenty of advice is puring in, Grant Stoelwinder among those who believes Thorpey will need to "reshape his physique and swim faster than he ever has before to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games", according to Fairfax group newspaper reports in various guises.

Thorpe is 101kg right now, and says he has 5kg to shed. At 96kg he would be on the heavy side of his rivals, the reports point out: Michael Phelps (83kg), Alain Bernard (84kg), Cesar Cielo (80kg),  Brent Hayden (86kg) and Eamon Sullivan (78kg).

"He looks really big up top," Stoelwinder tells reporter Todd Balym. "Most sprinters are leaning up a lot. Alain Bernard is still big but he's not thick. Thorpie has really thick arms and a thick chest. I'm sure they'll sculpt him a little bit." As for the need for speed Thorpe has never achieved before over 100m, the coach said: "He is a talented swimmer. I don't have doubts he can do it, it's going to be hard work to get there. He is probably going to be doing a lot on his own and that is going to be hard."

The mention of Abu Dhabi as a training base may turn out to be - out of aquatic competitive necessity - a pure PR gimmick for his airline sponsor. "I don't think there's any top athlete swimmer who has done it without other people around them, namely a coach, being their major presence and then the other people they train with," says leigh Nugent, head coach to Australia. 

After that early morning set in Sydney, Nugent told reporters: "I reckon he looks pretty good, he's swimming well and he's a great athlete. He belongs in the pool. He's capable of preparing for the Olympics. I think he'll be able to get himself ready, no doubt about it."

Thorpe's first test at world level is set for the World Cup series immediately after the November 2 date set by FINA for Thorpe's official race return under anti-doping rules. Swimmers may compete at the world cup without national-team selection. Thorpe's first real test will be domestic. Among those he will face is 19-year-old Thomas Fraser-Holmes, who tells his local paper today: "I don't really need much more motivation; I have plenty of motivation myself. Any time anyone else gets in the pool is motivation for me to train harder and get the best out of myself. He's just another guy that's going to be there to race at trials, just like I will be. I think you've got to respect what he has done but at the same time I'm going out there to make the team and do the best I can do. I can't worry about anyone else."

Over in the US, the news provides more fuel for the Motivation Machine (“everything you throw at him - good, bad, critical - he'll use it and feed on it to just keep trying harder, getting better.”). Bob Bowman said: "I welcome Ian back to the sport. His presence will only increase the interest and enthusiasm for swimming and we look forward to seeing him back on deck soon. He is one of the true greats and it will be fun to have him back in the mix for London."

Phelps's current mission as greatest Olympian in history remains a swim performance one but extends to his ambition to raise swimming's profile. It was in that spirit that the winner of 14 Olympic gold medals greeted the news of Thorpe's return this week, Bowman told SwimNews.  

The other party to the "race of the century" 200m free at Athens 2004, Pieter Van Den Hoogenband, won't be joining Thorpe and Phelps this time round. He told Reuters: "The old days are over, now it's the new generation stepping up and it's a good generation, great swimmers. Michael Phelps also wants to swim 100 and 200 freestyle and racing him or racing Brazilian guys or French guys ... I am looking forward to see Ian competing with those guys and I am very happy that I don't have to compete."

Thorpe wants to compete. He has missed six years of conditioning and more. A huge journey ahead. Only he knows his true desire, his true level of commitment, the depth of his own desire. On that score, Bowman says "it is the most important issue of all". The question posed by one publication will remain in focus for a while yet: will Thorpe's comeback be a Michael Jordan-esque success or a Michael Schumacher-like failure? 

Thorpe is conditioned not to see what he does in terms of failure, while he always had his own way of defining success, his yardstick less about who was ahead of him or behind him as whether he was where he thought he ought to be in manner of racing and on the clock. 

The return of Ian Thorpe is, understandably, being seen Down Under as a major boost to Australian swimming. Not everyone sees it quite like that. Kin of the 1956 Olympic race pool Murray Rose had this to say: "It’s like asking ‘does the Australian cricket team need Shane Warne?’ - the answer is obviously no. There is an ebb and flow in every sport. You can’t always be totally dominant. But if you look backwards then you are not developing your future talent as best as you can."