Ian Thorpe will concentrate on freestyle at this years' Athens Olympics, forgoing any possibility of emulating Mark Spitz's haul of seven golds at a single Games.

Thorpe's coach Tracey Menzies announced he would swim the 100, 200 and 400m freestyle at this month's Olympic swimming trials in Sydney, jettisoning the 200m medley from his program for Athens.

The 21-year-old won silver behind American Michael Phelps in the medley at last year's Barcelona world championships.

But with just 17 minutes between the 100m freestyle final and the 200m medley semi, Thorpe and Menzies have opted to take a more cautious approach into his second Olympics.

"I don't want to put too much pressure on him," Menzies said.

"It's going to be a hard enough task to get up and do the events that we've picked as well as relays.

"It's a big emotional drain."

Menzies said she expected some people within the sport to disagree with her decision.

"There's a lot of people that still think ... I'm probably being a bit too cautious," she said.

"But at this point, I need to listen to my athlete and I need to listen to what I feel. I need to make a judgment on what I think is going to be best for him."

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