Ian Thorpe says he won’t reveal whether he’s dating because he doesn’t know when an interview will air, while also describing the guilt he felt during his battle with depression.
Ian Thorpe didn’t flinch when a student asked about his love life—he just refused to answer at the wrong moment.
The Olympic great, now 43, appeared on ABC iView’s The Assembly with a group of autistic journalism students and took questions across a range of topics. When one asked if he is currently dating anyone, Thorpe joked, “You can’t ask that, c’mon… everyone sounds super-curious.”
He then explained why dating in public is hard, saying you may have to answer questions simply because people are watching. But the reason he gave for keeping his romantic life top secret was stranger than the usual privacy argument.
“I’m not going to say if I’m dating or not, because I don’t know when this goes to air.”
Thorpe also addressed his sexuality and the pain he says others couldn’t see. After being asked about his sexuality since he was in his mid-teens. Thorpe came out as gay in a televised interview with British journalist Sir Michael Parkinson in July 2014. He said it wasn’t a difficult experience for him and described it as something people accepted.
“It wasn’t terribly difficult to have people accept me as gay,” Thorpe said.
He added that he struggled with depression in a way that wasn’t visible to others—something he described as a sometimes-daily battle. “There’s a sense of guilt that you have that, ‘My life should be good, but I don’t feel that way,’” he said.
“And so, you feel that you can’t live an authentic or sincere life. I was and I am someone with depression.”
Thorpe said he realised something was wrong when he was in his teens, saying he wasn’t experiencing happiness and joy the way he felt it should come.
At the same time, he said he is in a good mental space now, though his mood can fluctuate. “As we talk about mental health a lot more, it becomes part of a vernacular of what people are going through,” he said. “Those conversations come a lot easier and people have an understanding.”
His appearance on The Assembly also drew attention to how much of his early life was shaped by spotlight and pressure. Thorpe burst onto the international stage by winning a world title in the 400m freestyle at just 15.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he won three gold medals. He also described being upset by Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle—an outcome he said stunned the nation. “Everyone just expected me to win, so [there was] a lot of pressure,” Thorpe said.
He said roughly one-third of his life was in the spotlight, and that the pace had started before most people even begin their careers. “I had already had a career as most people are starting.”
Fifteen years after quitting swimming. Thorpe said he had to make what he called a significant adjustment after no longer being a professional athlete. “There’s a significant adjustment that athletes need to make post-sporting career,” he said. “Mine was trying to get a better understanding of how I could fit in when most of the things that I’d been able to accomplish made me stand out.”.
“I don’t need to be the athlete I was before,” he added. “But I still want to feel strong, healthy and capable.”
Ian Thorpe The Assembly ABC iView depression mental health dating sexuality gay Michael Parkinson Sydney Olympics Pieter van den Hoogenband