Ian Thorpe: being called gay a compliment

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Times have changed for the better. Can you imagine an athlete taking this line twenty years ago?

“People are going to believe what they want to believe anyway,” Thorpe said in Sydney today when asked about the persistent rumours regarding his sexuality.

“I have answered the question once [before] and I don’t think I will ever answer it again because, quite frankly, it is no-one’s business to know anyone else’s business.”

But Thorpe, who is taking a break from swimming following the Athens Games – where he boosted his overall Olympic medal tally to nine, including five gold – said he was flattered by the tag.

“I am kind of flattered as well,” he said at a product launch in Sydney. “It is kind of not a minority group but a group of people that there is a distinguishing factor that we don’t have in common, and they respect and admire what I do and I think it is a very big compliment.”

Thorpe ‘flattered’ by gay rumours