World : Australian Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe comes out as gay

AP

Ian Thorpe

Australian Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe comes out as gay in a television interview airing Sunday evening in Australia, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Thorpe’s announcement follows more than a decade of denials — the first of which came just as his career skyrocketed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, when he was just 15.

In the interview, conducted last month with veteran British interviewer Sir Michael Parkinson, Thorpe — a five-time Olympic gold medallist — details the years of depression he has battled while denying his sexual orientation from the world.

Part of that concealment included his own autobiography “This Is Me,” published in 2012, in which Thorpe wrote that he found questions about his sexuality hurtful.

“I accept there’s nothing else I can say or do,” Thorpe said in 2012. “There’ll always be people who are skeptical; people who want me to be gay, and others who’ll try and use it against me.”

Thorpe has recently emerged from a lengthy stay in a rehabilitation facility, having endured very public battles with drugs and alcohol.

Australian gold medal-winning diver Matthew Mitcham, who came out as gay in 2008, said Saturday he hoped Australians would support Thorpe.

“I can totally understand how difficult this whole process has been for him,” Mitcham said. “I really hope this process gives him some peace.”

“The Australian public and media have a really wonderful opportunity to set an example for kids who are in Ian’s position,” he added.

Australia Channel 10 news and current affairs chief Peter Meakin has refused to confirm Thorpe’s revelation, saying only that the interview was “terrific.”

Thorpe, 31, retired from swimming in 2012 after winning five Olympic gold medals, three silvers, and one bronze, and setting 22 world records.

He was 14 when he was first chosen for Australia, and became swimming’s youngest world champion at that age when he won the 400-meter freestyle at the 1988 worlds in Perth.

His career peaked at the 2000 Sydney Olympics at which he won three gold and two silver medals. He retired after the 2004 Athens Olympics, citing a lack of motivation, but made an unsuccessful comeback when he tried to qualify for the 2012 London Games.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bron : LGBTQ NATION