Australia's Olympic and world champion Ian Thorpe is planning to retire from swimming after the 2008 Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images], he told The Australian newspaper.

Thorpe signed a sponsorship deal last week through to the 2012 London [Images] Games. He now says he is almost certain to hang up his goggles after 2008.

"It's not out of the question, but at the moment I intend to retire in Beijing," he said.

"It [the sponsorship deal] is there if I want to go on, but if I decide that I don't want to, I can become an ambassador." Thorpe is already Australia's most decorated Olympian. He won three gold medals as a 17-year-old in Sydney in 2000 and another two at the Athens Games in 2004.

He has also won 13 world titles but missed this year's world championships in Montreal so he could have a year off and recharge his batteries before the long road to China.

Thorpe's next major competition is the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March. The Australian trials to select the team start on Monday.

Thorpe has dropped his signature event, the 400m, to concentrate on the 100m and 200m as part of his dream to become a specialist sprinter.

"That was what got me excited about training again," he said.

No male swimmer has won individual gold medals at three Olympics.