Ian Thorpe’s latest role is one that brings him the most pride
He is among our most decorated athletes of all time, but the legendary Ian Thorpe says his role as a Rainbow Champion at Sydney WorldPride is by far the most special.By WILL LENNOX
Ian Thorpe. Picture: Georges AntoniFrom Life
February 17, 2023
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In 2014, Ian Thorpe sat down with Sir Michael Parkinson to conduct an interview that would change his life. At the time, Thorpe was not just the face of swimming, but of the quintessential Australian sportsman.
At the tender age of 14, the boy from Milperra became the youngest male ever to represent Australia in the pool. Within a year, he won the 400-metre freestyle at the 1998 Perth World Championships, then becoming the youngest ever individual male World Champion.
Thus began an era of aquatic dominance that went close to unrivalled for several years. By the end of Thorpe’s glistening athletic career, he had five Olympic Games gold medals, 11 World Championship gold medals and 23 world records to his name.
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“I had questioned myself on when I should come out,” he reflects now, to Vogue Australia. “And at every point, I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t prepared for it.”
Thorpe’s success in the global sporting arena propelled him into the limelight and created a broad fascination with the swimming superstar. Public opinion intruded further and further into the stoic swimmer’s personal life. Thorpe admits now that he “was skipping over the part of my sexuality and not placing an emphasis on it” during his career, because of his belief that his sexuality didn’t define him, that it wasn’t the most important thing about him. But then Thorpe would re-evaluate once more: “Well, then, if it’s not that big a deal, why aren’t you out?”
The difficulty of this period, a time in which Thorpe wanted to come out but simply couldn’t, had the athlete convinced that he “wasn’t living an authentic version of himself”.
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“I had questioned myself on when I should come out. And at every point, I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t prepared for it”
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In 2014, when Thorpe came out to Parkinson on national television, the sensation was one of release, a catharsis that immediately opened the door for him into “a community that is very, very welcoming”.
“I struggled to come out, but I don’t struggle being out,” Thorpe laughs.
In the years since that interview, he has gone on to use his platform to become a spokesperson for equality in sport and beyond, supporting youth mental health with his organisation ReachOut, advocating for LGBTQIA+ representation for athletes, and serving as Champion of Diversity and Inclusion for Optus, which is the Premier Network partner for Sydney WorldPride.
Ian Thorpe is a Rainbow Champion during Sydney WorldPride.He has also taken up the mantle of Rainbow Champion for the event, selected as one of 45 influential figures from the Australian LGBTQIA+ network for their ongoing contributions to community and culture. It is a mantle that he wears with pride.
“I’m pleased that I can be one of those people representing the community as best I can,” Thorpe says humbly, of transitioning from swimming champion to Rainbow Champion.
Some have hailed Sydney WorldPride as the ‘gay Olympics’ – Thorpe is obviously no stranger to an event of this magnitude. He remembers the 2000 Olympic Games in the Harbour City “as though Sydney matured, almost in the same way that … I grew up as a teenager, and then became an adult”.
Sydney WorldPride, in all its glory, will be a second coming-of-age for the city. It’s the first time that the event has been hosted in the Southern Hemisphere. With more than 300 events over a packed-out 17 days, beginning on February 17, it’s going to be a massive festival, celebrating the unique offering Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community brings to the world.
At 14 Thorpe became the youngest male ever to represent Australia in the pool.Thorpe is cheekily reticent in divulging his plans for the upcoming party, keeping his cards close to his chest as to where you might be able to find him on any particular night.
“What I don’t think people realise at the moment is there’s going to be half a million extra people here in Australia,” Thorpe shares, “in a time which is summer, where we are all celebrating.”
For a star as bright as Thorpe, you can’t blame him for wanting to keep the party on his terms. He is, however, ready to share details on his work with the humanitarian impact side of Sydney WorldPride and the conference being held during the festival to promote the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.
It’s similar work to what Thorpe does with Optus’s Express Yourself Network, an employee-led group that was first formed to help advocate for marriage equality in Australia. Today, it exists to help encourage an inclusive environment in the workplace for all.
Sydney will play host to WorldPride this year.“A lot of the things I do are about … what it means to express yourself within the organisation and bring your best self each day,” Thorpe explains. “And that goes beyond just the LGBTQIA+ group of people. It’s across diversity across the entire workforce. We want to make sure that those people that are there are represented. That they feel as though their voice is heard.”
For Thorpe, Sydney WorldPride is an opportunity for people to become even more comfortable with coming out in the most supportive environment possible. Reflecting on that interview almost a decade ago, he recognises the significance his example set for everyone else.
“After I did come out, one of the things that someone told me is that the importance of being out isn’t really just about yourself,” Thorpe shares. “It’s that your example may make it easier for someone that may be in more difficult circumstances than you. Had someone said that to me earlier, I may have considered and realised the importance of actually being out.”
This article appears in the February issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.
