Five-time Olympic gold medal swimmer and Australian icon Ian Thorpe for the first time publicly says “I’m a gay man” and says his denial was “the big lie.”
For 15 years, the press hounded Ian Thorpe, asking if he were gay. Tired of denying the rumors, in his 2012 autobiography, This Is Me, Thorpe wrote, “I am not gay and all my sexual experiences have been straight. I’m attracted to women, I love children and aspire to have a family one day … I know what it’s like to grow up and be told what your sexuality is, then realising that it’s not the full reality. I was accused of being gay before I knew who I was.”
But Sunday night on Australian television, Thorpe was asked again.
LOOK:Â Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer Ian Thorpe Just Revealed He Is Gay — Here’s Why It Matters
“I’ve thought about this for a long time. I’m, I’m not straight,” the 31-year old Olympian told Sir Michael Parkinson. “This is only something that very recently, we’re talking in the past two weeks, I’ve been comfortable telling the closest people around me, exactly that.”
Noting that he “wanted to” come out “for some time,” Thorpe said he had been asked since he was 16. Everyone lies at that age about being gay, he told Parkinson.Â
“You know, the problem was I was asked at such a young age about my sexuality and you know I went to an all boys school,” Thorpe explained. “And I hate that it’s called an accusation because it isn’t a negative thing but this is usually the terminology we use. But I went to an all boys school so if you’re accused of being gay, the first answer is ‘no’, and you get ready for a fight! This is what happens, and I didn’t know at this age, I’m too young. And so the answer was no. Then, I carried this, the next way I answered this was telling people that I thought it was inappropriate to be asking a child such kind of questions.”
“And also that it’s not appropriate for that question to be asked of anyone. But what happened was I felt the lie had become so big that I didn’t want people to question my integrity. And, a little bit of ego comes into this. I didn’t want people to question that, have I lied about everything?”
But Thorpe says he’s “comfortable” with his sexuality now.
“I’m comfortable saying I’m a gay man. And I don’t want young people to feel the same way that I did. You can grow up, you can be comfortable, and you can be gay. I was concerned about the reaction from my family, my friends and I’m pleased to say that in telling them, especially my parents, they told me that they love me, and they support me. And for young people out there, know that that’s usually what the answer is.”
Thorpe says one of the treason he didn’t come out was, “I heard a lot of homophobic kind of things, I mean I was subjected to homophobic kind of insults as well…people in the street would yell out. They’d call me a faggot or whatever else y’know a poof for doing this.”
Thorpe says that he didn’t want to be gay, but in the end denial was “the big lie.”
“But you hear these remarks and things around someone’s career that market ability and things like that kept me in this lie that became a convenient lie for me to not accept it because I wasn’t accepting it in myself. I didn’t want to be gay. But I realised everything that I was doing I still was gay at the end of the day. So, that was most definitely part of it. And then it just was that big lie. That I felt there was a weight with that. And also what people’s reaction was going to be. I was scared.”
To Everyone who has sent a message of support I sincerely Thank you!
— Ian Thorpe (@IanThorpe) July 13, 2014
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Hat tip: Towleroad
Transcript: Daily Telegraph