Ian Thorpe, the Australian Olympic
swimmer nicknamed the Thorpedo and Thorpey, has called persistent gay
rumors “hurtful.”
The 30-year-old Thorpe has won five
Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian. He was also the
most successful athlete to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
In an interview with the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to promote his autobiography This
Is Me, Thorpe said the rumors question his integrity.
“Yeah, look, the thing that I find
hurtful about it is that people are questioning kind of my integrity
and what I say,” said Thorpe. “That's the only part that I find
hurtful. Like is that, you know, this is something that I would be
embarrassed about, that I would hide or whatever else.”
“I don't want to offend anyone that,
you know, whether they're people [who] have friends that are gay or
whatever else, I don't want to offend them by … getting angry about
it, getting frustrated about it. The only part that I'm frustrated
with is that people think that I'm lying.” (The video is embedded
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Thorpe has previously evaded answering
questions about his sexuality, suggested he's bisexual and flatly
denied that he is gay.
For example, in a Sunday's London
Telegraph interview, he left the question open, answering, “I
tick all the boxes,” while in the documentary Ian Thorpe: The
Swimmer, he simply answered, “Women,” when asked about his
sexual orientation.