He may have busted three ribs in June but Craig Stevens believes his lead-up to the Beijing Olympics has been a cakewalk compared to Athens.

Stevens admitted the drama surrounding him stepping aside for Ian Thorpe in the 400m took more of a mental toll before the 2004 Games than he let on in the past.

The freestyler was thrust into the spotlight and forced to make one of the toughest decisions imaginable for an elite athlete.

Swim the race and face criticism for not performing as well as Thorpe or pass up the event and be left to ponder what might have been.

"Straight after trials having that decision to make and trying to get in and do the work and having that in the back of your mind," he said.

"Then afterwards there was a bit of thought, 'Did I do the right thing? Should I have done it?'."

"But I think it might have got to me a bit too much but you learn from those experiences ... (although) it had a bit of impact on me."

Stevens finished last in the 1500m final in Athens, well outside his best time.

Does he regret handing Thorpe the swim?

"I think after Athens and having the whole Olympic experience and watching Ian swim that race just enjoying and looking back on it now, I have no regrets and I am sure I made the right decision," he said.

However the road didn't get much easier for Stevens the following year, he injured himself moving house and missed out on the 2005 world championships team.

After weighing up whether to quit the sport, he decided to plough on and was gifted a spot at the 2006 Commonwealth Games with Thorpe withdrawing through illness in a delicious twist of fate.

At last year's world championships he collected a breakthrough bronze medal in the 800m which was upgraded to silver following a positive doping test by Oussama Mellouli.

Stevens, who has recovered from three fractured ribs before Beijing, remains good mates with Thorpe and said that testing period in their lives never comes up in conversation.

"We have never really spoken about it, that was something that happened a while ago and we have both moved on," he said.

"Ian has retired and moved on with life after swimming and we still catch up and have a chat I guess it is something that will always be there and be a bit of a bond between us.

"It is not something that comes up in conversation that regularly no."

Stevens said that Thorpe's thanks the night that he won back-to-back 400m titles in Greece was enough.

"I think after he came back from the event that night after the drug testing because we were rooming together he said it," Stevens said.

"And all the stuff he did with the media he mentioned all that, so that was really nice and showed that he was really grateful."