He’s an Olympic gold medalist and an Australian sports hero, but Ian Thorpe has revealed the bullying and discrimination he endured at a young age as he was coming to terms with his sexuality and growing success in the swimming pool.
The now openly gay 33-year-old told The Daily Telegraph that he faced prying questions about his sexuality at just sixteen, which made him feel pressured at a time when he was trying to understand it all for himself.
“I feel as though people were trying to force me out of the closet when I didn’t even know myself,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
Thorpe has faced public scrutiny since he became a swimming sensation at an extraordinarily young age, beginning his professional sporting career at just fourteen. Thorpe had to endure the difficulties of adolescence with Australia watching.
Since retiring from swimming, Thorpe has recently been appointed as the host of new televesion series, The Bully Project, an ABC factual series shedding light on bullying in Australian schools, an endeavour close to Thorpe’s heart. He has admitted to having struggled to ‘fit in’ before he found the confidence to be true to himself.
“I guess I thought of everything I’d want in my life, a family, things like that. I was so young, I was trying to be everything for everyone and not having the confidence to just be myself,” he confessed.
Watch: Hey Mia, how do you deal with the haters? Post continues after video…
Thorpe revealed that high school was a particularly difficult time where he endured bullying and probing questions from not only students, but teachers too, surrounding his success in particular.
“They were either great about it or I had some experiences with teachers who really had this issue around the fact I’d been successful.”
Thorpe suggested that negativity or bullying only has to come from one person to have significantly damaging repercussions on an individual, an important revelation that inspired the former Olympian to become involved in The Bully Project.
“I thought it was important we started not only the conversation about this in Australia, but also got to a point where we’re coming up with the resolutions as well … a lot needs to be done,” Thorpe said.
Top Comments
My son came out to me at age 21 after the Ian Thorpe interview. We were having a discussion over coffee at our local shopping centre. I was saying how good it would be if no one felt the need to come out because no one would care about someone's sexuality. It was at this point my son revealed that he was gay and that his close friend was actually his partner. I am thankful for Ian's honesty. It gave my son the confidence to confide in me. We finished our coffees that day and continued with our shopping. As far as I was concerned, nothing had changed about my son. He was still the same fantastic person.
Ian, you are gay. Fine. We live in a very open and tolerant country where you can be openly gay and not attract the punishment of the state for it. If you were bullied, well sorry about that, but you're hardly alone.
You have a charmed life, you have won gold medals, been adored by the nation. You even forgot your camera on the way to the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, 2001 and went back to your hotel to fetch it rather than head up to the viewing level. You have karma on your side!
You are more than your sexuality, you are more than your best swimming times, enjoy your life, you have much to celebrate.