Is Ian Thorpe Gay? Whew! I wish…
I know, I know.. it has been going around for ages. I just don’t really know the answer but I always thought Ian Thorpe is the hottest swimmer on earth!
But most recently, famous blogs are showing up with pictures of Ian Thorpe and a “hot Brazilian swimmer room mate” coming out of the ocean in Brazil. Hmmm… then, add the caption – “This is the guy Ian has been living with for three years.” You begin to wonder don’t you? “Is it really true?!” Perez Hilton – where are you when we need you to tip off the lid!!
The picture above shows the Brazilian named “Daniel” on the right where Ian’s hands are resting… hmmm… coincidence? Ian Thorpe has quickly denied the rumors…
Read the article after the JUMP
Thorpe not a happy chappy over gay rumours
By Paul Kent
January 30, 2009 12:00am
THE speculation and innuendo was too much for Ian Thorpe yesterday. Clearly, there comes a point. Shortly after lunch, Thorpe’s management company received a phone call about the latest gay rumours.
“I don’t think, at this point, there’s any reason for Ian to dignify what has been said,” said David Lyall, Grand Slam International’s communications director.
“It’s a matter of some photos being taken and some implications being made on the internet.”
It was more than they realised, though.
No I am NOT gay, Thorpe insists
Hollywood gossip Perez Hilton, himself gay, had outed Thorpe overnight, based on the photos of Thorpe holidaying with current flatmate and former training partner, Brazilian Daniel Mendes.
“In Australia, the media has done everything but out swimmer Ian Thorpe,” Hilton wrote, following it with several deliberately mischievous paragraphs before he rolled a grenade into the room.
“Thorpe’s manager, however, says they’re ‘just mates’ – which is Australian for ‘f . . . . . . ‘.”
British tabloids had also made sport of the photos, although they focused largely on Thorpe’s weight gain.
Lyall thought it all ridiculous.
He saw no need for Thorpe to comment on the innuendo. “At this stage we don’t see the need,” he said. “Ian has made his position in life clear.”
Which, of course, fanned the flames.
Part of the allure of Thorpe is he does not fit neatly into a box.
Trying to nail him down is like trying to nail jelly to the wall.
Even when he was swimming, he managed to be part of the Australian team, yet distant from it.
Other swimmers put it down to his overwhelming fame, which put him in a different world. It was that, and yet it was more than that. Now it emerges that he has recently holidayed with Mendes’ family in Brazil, and vice versa.
Mendes, it is claimed, was introduced to Thorpe by former coach Tracey Menzies. “I introduced Daniel to the whole training squad, not specifically Ian,” she said yesterday.
By then Mendes had already lived in Australia and trained under Thorpe’s former coach Doug Frost, finishing second in the under-16s 200m freestyle at the 2003 Australian Age Championships while winning the 100m.
“He came back in 2006 or 2007, I can’t remember which, to do university and swim, predominantly training for the worlds,” Menzies said.
“There’s no relationship to my knowledge, they’re just good mates.”
Yet it hardly dispels the rumours.
For years Thorpe’s manager Dave Flaskas, GSI’s managing director, has received correspondence from Sydney’s gay community. It was always the same.
When he was ready to come out, it went, they were ready to support him.
In a strange way, though, in a roundabout way, it helped reinforce whispers Thorpe was refusing to come out.
At his height, it went, Thorpe was celebrated around the world, most notably in Japan.
Japanese biographies, Japanese companies, he even signed a deal with TV Asahi, who put him alongside David Beckham and Tiger Woods as its marquee signings.
His earning potential in Japan far outstripped Australia – where there is very little market for the pink yen.
A coming out would be career suicide.
Lyall said yesterday that Thorpe still has business interests in Japan, which appear to have moved from sponsorships into more investment-type opportunities.
Again, it shows the evolution of Thorpe. He is never in the same place long enough to properly examine.
Foxtel, in Australia, still stands fiercely behind him, with one Australian marketing expert saying a gay Ian Thorpe would have no less earning potential than a straight Ian Thorpe.
Thorpe is still sponsored by Audi in Australia and globally by adidas and Omega. Yesterday he was in Melbourne, working his last few days before beginning the final two years of his university degree next week.
Flaskas met all day with international clients as photographers camped outside his office. Flaskas would not be out of his meeting before 6pm.
Websites – from queerty.com in New York, to samesame.com.au here in Australia, debated the innuendo well through the day. What Thorpe knew of the debate is unknown.
Until bang on 6pm, when a statement was released, from Thorpe, through GSI.
“I find this kind of inaccurate speculation tiresome and I am annoyed by the hurt it has caused those closest to me,” it said in part.
And all it does is add to the mystery of Thorpe. As strong as it was, it will not end the speculation one bit.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
