Australian Olympic Medallist Talks about Coming Out and Depression

Australian swimming great Ian Thorpe at the 10th birthday of the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, Ultimo, Sunday, August 27, 2017. Picture: Damian Shaw/AAPSource:News Corp Australia 

ONE of the most difficult things Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe has ever done was to reveal to the public in 2014 that he was gay.

The swimmer had already told his conservative Christian family about his sexuality and their reaction was to tell him they loved him, which was exactly what he needed to hear.

But there was one moment Thorpe knew he wasn’t going to turn back from making it public too.

As Thorpe started telling a people he was going to do a TV interview, he said some advised him to “take your time to get used to being gay”.

At the age of 31, Thorpe realized there was no more time to waste and he wanted to live his life with transparency.

“I realized it had taken my whole adult life to telling the closest people to me that I was gay,” Thorpe said. “And at this point, I’m not taking a step back into the closet.”

In a speech on mental health hosted by Procore Technologies and Mates in Construction in Sydney on Wednesday, Thorpe said there was only one factor that made him regret taking so long to acknowledge his sexuality.

“I really was uncomfortable with my sexuality, I didn’t want to be gay,” he said.

“(But) I wish someone had told me this earlier — in being out, you become an example that makes it easier for someone else who may be struggling.”

Thorpe spoke candidly about his own experience with depression and said he believes wrestling with his sexual identity contributed to his poor mental health.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that since I’ve been out that my life has felt like my own,” he said.

In fact, Thorpe feels better than ever.

“I didn’t realize that I could actually be well,” he said. “I thought I had to compromise on happiness — that I could probably only get to content and that’s kind of good enough.

“I didn’t realize that when you really work on it each day that there’s a possibility to live a really rewarding, fulfilling life, and a joyous life.”

Thorpe’s contentment has been hard-won and he is now worried about other Australians who may be struggling, especially as debate continues around the same-sex marriage survey.

Even though he is a prominent face of the Yes campaign, Thorpe said he was “sick of hearing about” the survey.

“I can’t get away from it (the survey), I hear about it and I’m sick of hearing about it.

“Imagine being that kid (in a family of No voters) and being isolated and being told that the way that you feel isn’t right.”

Even though younger generations are more accepting of gay relationships, Thorpe said they were still given a hard time.

“Right now if you had a 16-year-old at home that (said) ‘I’m gay’ ... would you tell them to keep it to themselves at school?

“What would be the advice you give them?”

Ian Thorpe (right) with his boyfriend Ryan Channing.Source:Supplied

Thorpe said many families would probably counsel their children not to say anything to those at school because it would make their lives more difficult.

“Some of that still needs to be worked on,” he said.

When asked what people against same-sex marriage were so afraid of, Thorpe said he believes they don’t want change.

“There’s this shift in power at the moment and we have to make the decision day-to-day of what kind of world and what kind of society we want to live in,” he said.

“These decisions are happening now (and) they’re happening quickly.”

Thorpe also revealed he wasn’t prepared for the aftermath of his decision to reveal his struggles with depression in his autobiography This Is Me.

“I didn’t realize the toll it would take on me,” he said.

“I wasn’t prepared to then talk about being depressed with people ... constantly going over the same detail.

“If there’s one way, that really is guaranteed to make you depressed, it’s talking about being depressed.”

But Thorpe said he had worked really hard to feel well and to embrace his life again.

“I work on my mental health daily,” he said. “I’m not fearful of going into that kind of state again yet knowing my history, the likelihood is that it will happen again.

“But each time I’m faced with that, I have more tools to be able to manage that.”

Ian Thorpe being interviewed about mental health issues by Jeff McMullen at Procore Technologies lunch, held in conjunction with Mates in Construction.Source:Supplied

One thing Thorpe said made a difference to his life was allowing himself a day to feel down before calling his friends to ask for help.

“Once I’ve taken that control over it, usually by the time 24 hours is up, I don’t need the friends to come,” he said.

Thorpe has battled mental health issues since his teenage years and pointed out that diagnosis could also be quite difficult when athletes are training hard.

“The thing that becomes quite complicated in sport is working out why you’re exhausted,” he said.

“Is it because you have happened to have swum 120km in the last week? Or is it because you’re depressed?”

In tackling mental health Thorpe stressed the importance of encouraging an open, diverse and accepting society, workplace and community.

“Collectively when we remove some of the dignity that is in people’s lives and in their roles, we actually weaken the entire group,” he said.

The 35-year-old said his own career was proof that working as a team makes people stronger.

“For me, my best performances in my career were in relays,” Thorpe said.

“When you calculate my times in relays I should always have been able to perform better in individual races.

“But I could not find that for myself the same way I can find it for my mates.”

Ian Thorpe (right) celebrates winning Gold in the Mens 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Picture: Al Bello /AllsportSource:Supplied