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Sydney. Ian Thorpe and Libby Trickett, two of Australia’s star swimmers of the past decade, will return to international competition at three World Cup meets in Asia in November to prepare for next year’s London Olympics.

Swimming Australia said on Friday that seven-time Olympic gold medalist Thorpe, who returned to the pool in February after a four-and-a-half-year retirement, and Trickett, who hasn’t competed internationally since the Rome world championships in August 2009, would be part of the Australian team at the meets in Singapore (Nov. 4-5), Beijing (Nov. 8-9) and Tokyo (Nov. 11-12).

“The reality for me is I’m now at the next stage of my preparation and getting ready to race competitively, and I’m really looking forward to catching up with everyone in Singapore,” Thorpe said from his training base in Tenero, Switzerland.

In June, three-time Olympic champion Trickett, 26, failed in her bid to qualify for an Australian relay spot for the Shanghai world titles in July. She won a relay gold at Athens in 2004 and individual and relay golds at Beijing in 2008, but was not eligible for the Australian trials due to a requirement for her to undergo drug-testing before competing.

Thorpe, training under Russian coach Gennadi Touretski, confirmed in February that he’d registered for drug testing in order to be eligible to compete in the Australian Olympic selection trials in March 2012.

The 28-year-old Thorpe retired in November 2006 after setting 13 world records and winning 11 world championship golds. He won both the 200 and 400 free at the 2004 Athens Olympics in his last major international meet.

“I know both athletes have been working hard since making their intentions clear about returning to the competition pool, and while I won’t be focusing too much on their results, I’ll be very interested to see how they prepare themselves and go through their race processes over the series of meets,” Australia head coach Leigh Nugent said.

Trickett, who swam at this year’s Australian short course titles in Adelaide in July, said the meet will be her first chance to race internationally since announcing her comeback in August last year.

“I didn’t get the chance to swim in Europe earlier in the year because of a wrist injury so it’s going to be great to get back in the water and compete on the international stage,” Trickett said.

There was no indication which events Thorpe and Trickett would compete in at the World Cup meets. Thorpe has said he will concentrate on the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events.

Associated Press