Former Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe has admitted that he is gay.
Appearing in a television talk show in Australia, the 31-year old swimming legend bravely answered the question regarding his sexuality.
Thorpe has repeatedly denied in the past that he is gay, even writing in an autobiography released in 2012 that, via USA Today, : "For the record, I am not gay and all of my sexual experiences have been straight. I'm attracted to women, I love children, and aspire to have a family one day."
When asked by talk show host Michael Parkinson if it is true that his sexual experiences have all been with women, Thorpe retorted, as quoted by Daily Telegraph Australia: "Well that's true, but I've thought about this for a long time. I'm not straight and 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."
Thorpe said he had always wanted to be honest about his sexuality for some time, but could not. He explained: "What happened was, I felt that 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 think that I had lied about everything."
Still, he insisted that he is comfortable to say that he's gay. "And I don't want people to feel the same way I did. You can grow up, you can be comfortable and you can be gay."
Thorpe is one of the most accomplished swimmers of all time, winning five Olympic gold medals and setting 22 world records. He retired from swimming in 2012.
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