Ian Thorpe began his Athens Olympics countdown with a comfortable win in the 19 years and over 200m freestyle at the NSW state championships at the Sydney Aquatic Centre.

Thorpe led from the start and was never challenged, finishing a body-length ahead of his nearest rival Joshua Krogh to record a time, pedestrian by his standards, of 1:50.23.

The clean-shaven Thorpe, a far cry from his hirsute public appearance last week, was more than six seconds outside his world record time of 1:44.06.

However, Thorpe was upbeat after the race.

"The time was pretty much the same as what I've been swimming in training," he said.

"I'm confident - I don't need racing. I'm confident in myself and the training I'm doing."

Thorpe said it was only at the urging of his coach, Tracey Menzies, that he swam at the state champs and he even missed his medal presentation entirely.

The triple Olympic gold medallist said he was training heavily and had continued to train despite swimming the 200m heats and finals.

Thorpe said he would not be swimming the 200m individual medley later in the event and had yet to decide whether he would swim the 100m freestyle.

The 200m IM final is held on the same day as the 100m freestyle final at Athens.

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