Ian Thorpe, Australia's most decorated Olympian, revealed he was gay in an emotional television interview on Sunday, ending years of speculation about the champion swimmer's sexuality.
The five-time Olympic gold medallist made the admission to British journalist Michael Parkinson in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Australia's Channel 10.
"I've thought about this for a long time. I'm not straight," Thorpe said, struggling to hold tears back.
"And this is only something that very recently, we're talking the past two weeks, I've been comfortable telling the closest people around me, exactly that.
"I've wanted to (come out) for some time but I couldn't, I didn't feel as though I could.
"What happened was I felt the lie had become so big that I didn't want people to question my integrity."
Thorpe had long denied he was gay and wrote in his 2012 autobiography 'This Is Me' that he was heterosexual.
"For the record, I am not gay and all my sexual experiences have been straight," Thorpe wrote in the book. "I'm attracted to women, I love children and aspire to have a family one day.
"I know what it's like to grow up and be told what your sexuality is, then realising that it's not the full reality. I was accused of being gay before I knew who I was."
Thorpe said constant questions about his sexuality, starting from the age of 16, had contributed to guarding his personal life.
He had also been discouraged by homophobic taunts from the public. However, he admitted a big part of his reticence was that he was troubled that revealing he was gay would not fit into his image as "Australia's champion".
