Ian Thorpe bares his soul

Or if you read all the SMS I had this morning from me gay mates "bares his bum" is a better headline. Reaction varies from "About bloody time" to "Hypocrite". Here's a typical columnist http://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/ia ... zt5rm.html (http://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/ian-thorpe-acknowledges-hes-gay-lets-hope-hes-now-happy-as-well-20140713-zt5rm.html) Note what he says about Thorpe's "I did not have sex with that woman Miss Lewinsky" commentary: "For the record,тАЭ he wrote in his autobiography two years ago, тАЬ I am not gay and all my sexual experiences have been straight.тАЭ

Best SMS: "If it was a story about Thorpe in a 3sum with Matthew Mitcham and some other dude THAT would be news" and "Why now? He's well past his sell-by date"

[LoveThailand]

Big dick - not so handsome face. Catching up with guys who these days dare to come out while still in the game.

[joe552]

I think it's a positive that he has come out (do we remember our own struggles with that?). Will it make any difference to the gay 15 or 16 year old in Nowheresville, Nebraska or any other small town? Probably not.

[scottish-guy]

Joe has summed it up pretty well - who cares really.

It would have been rather more impressive if he hadn't spent years not merely being ambiguous about his sexuality, but downright denying he was gay (the swimmer, not Joe :)) )

However, he is by no means the first athlete/politician/musician/actor to do that - and as those of us in the UK and Ireland who are of a certain age might remember, not ever the first Thorpe! :ymdevil:

[Jellybean]

However, he is by no means the first athlete/politician/musician/actor to do that - and as those of us in the UK and Ireland who are of a certain age might remember, not ever the first Thorpe!
Oh yes! I remember the other Thorpe very well.

One night, two friends and I decided to visit a straight bar for a change. As we entered the bar some wag shouted out, тАЬLook! Three Jeremys!тАЭ One of my friends, if I remember correctly, was on the camp side and I wasnтАЩt too keen on going to a straight bar with him. I was horrified at the reaction as we had barely stepped through the doors. We turned tail and fled immediately to a background noise of hilarious laughter. Queer bashing and homophobia were rife in those days and it would be another 20 years before I тАШcame outтАЩ to my colleagues at work. Ah ... memories!

[lego]

It does get boring, after all.

[joe552]

I think that sometimes it's helpful for young people to see sports stars or actors come out. Look at the British diver Tom Daley and the American football player (whose name escapes me). Positive messages from people still active and successful in their sport. What message a young guy gets from a retired sportsman finally admitting he's gay, having denied it in his autobiography, isn't that helpful.

[scottish-guy]

Can we leave the over-hyped, over-rated, under-achiever known as Tom Daley out of it please.

I strongly suspect the only reason he regularly gets mentioned on gay boards is because many would like to have got into his knickers - or even his speedoes.

Joe excepted of course. :))

A story in todays papers suggests he and his management team had discussions as early as 2000 and decided against coming out because it would threaten his lucrative sponsorship deals. Now that's a message for today's young gay guys! http://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/de ... 3bv2m.html (http://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/deal-or-no-deal-why-thorpe-kept-quiet-20140713-3bv2m.html)

[fountainhall]

It's all too easy to criticise Thorpe for publicly denying being gay for a long time. As Joe552 points out, perhaps it's too easy to forget the denials and struggles many of us had to go through. But I don't agree with his later comment: "What message a young guy gets from a retired sportsman finally admitting he's gay, having denied it in his autobiography, isn't that helpful." There is one pertinent comment in that Sydney Morning Herald article that I think may well be of some help to those trying to make the decision to come out -


one canтАЩt help wonder if having to hide his sexuality and not live as the man he wants to be has had anything to do with the depression, alcohol, prescription drugs and troubles he has had in recent years.
Isn't the message there that it's far better to come out early and not inflict those demons on yourself?

[joe552]

I would agree that it's better to come out early and live as the person you want to be. I found it a struggle to come out- as did many of my generation (born in the 50s). Who knows if him hiding his sexuality led to his addiction problems or if there were other factors? We'll never know. But good luck to him (as if he cares what I think!).

There is one pertinent comment in that Sydney Morning Herald article that I think may well be of some help to those trying to make the decision to come out -


one canтАЩt help wonder if having to hide his sexuality and not live as the man he wants to be has had anything to do with the depression, alcohol, prescription drugs and troubles he has had in recent years.
Isn't the message there that it's far better to come out early and not inflict those demons on yourself?Complete balls fountainhall

He didn't come out in 2000 because it would impact his very very lucrative sponsorship deals

He didn't come out 4 or 5 years later (after the Athens Olympics) because the business ventures he had started turned sour and he needed the sponsorship money more than ever. Who can forget the ludicrous "Ian Thorpe Underwear" business. (Any of us could have told him that if he wanted to fool around with boys in underwear he need only go to Thailand)

Then the rumours started so he had to go with denials because he couldn't allow his revenue stream to be threatened

He attempted a comeback for the London Olympics and this coincided with his autobiography where he asserted "All of my sexual encounters have been heterosexual". More about sponsorships and publisher's advances than about "honesty"

Of course he was trapped and of course he got depressed and all of that. But he had made his choice - money, money, money - and his sufferings were entirely self-inflicted. The only conflict about him coming out - after all, we now know he wanted to come out in 2000 - was to do with the money he would lose by doing so

Is he a role model for young gays? Sure he is, and his message is: "Come out and there will be penalties". That's more likely to be true for athletes and others who rely on their fame for sponsorship. For those with real achievements such as Jack Andraka who is profiled in the latest Gay Times, that is likely to be less true.

[fountainhall]

Complete balls fountainhall . . .
his sufferings were entirely self-inflicted
Of course they were - which is precisely what I wrote, if you had bothered to read it!


his message is: "Come out and there will be penalties"
Complete balls! He and his advisers may have thought that 15 or so years ago. Others like 19-year old Tom Daley have shown that that no longer has to be the case - you have heard of Tom Daley, I assume? The point that Thorpe coveys is that he suffered needlessly.

[lego]

Maybe not needlessly, isn't it simply the case that A LOT has changed within the last 10-15 years or so?

Maybe not needlessly, isn't it simply the case that A LOT has changed within the last 10-15 years or so?Not so much for athletes. And let's face it, Tom Daley is another has-been and was by the time he came out. If you want to see what happens when current athletes come out you have only to look at the example of Matthew Mitcham whose sponsors are almost non-existent or second-tier at best.

Since I did read what you wrote, fountainhead, perhaps you might consider that your writing lacks clarity.

[fountainhall]

let's face it, Tom Daley is another has-been and was by the time he came out
He was 19 when he came out. He leads the UK diving team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. He still has his regular TV work and retained his endorsements. I suppose you would have preferred it if he came out when he was 15.


Since I did read what you wrote, fountainhead, perhaps you might consider that your writing lacks clarity
You are just so predictably amusing!

[scottish-guy]

let's face it, Tom Daley is another has-been and was by the time he came out
He was 19 when he came out. He leads the UK diving team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Have to agree with Kommie. As I said above, Daley is an over-hyped underachiever, and his TV " work" is complete dross - mindless drivel appealing to the lowest common denominator. However, I accept that's a matter of opinion

What's NOT a matter of opinion though is your other point Fountainhall - and I'm gobsmacked! Surely you know there ISN'T a UK/GB team at the Commonwealth Games - Scotland, England, Wales, and N.Ireland all compete separately.

:-o

[fountainhall]

Spellchecker on the blink again :-o

[scottish-guy]

Spellchecker on the blink again :-o

:))

let's face it, Tom Daley is another has-been and was by the time he came out
He was 19 when he came out. He leads the UK diving team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Have to agree with Kommie. As I said above, Daley is an over-hyped underachiever, and his TV " work" is complete dross - mindless drivel appealing to the lowest common denominator. However, I accept that's a matter of opinion

What's NOT a matter of opinion though is your other point Fountainhall - and I'm gobsmacked! Surely you know there ISN'T a UK/GB team at the Commonwealth Games - Scotland, England, Wales, and N.Ireland all compete separately.

:-oI think we all know by know that fountainhall and accuracy are strangers to one another.

[fountainhall]

I think we all know by know that fountainhall and accuracy are strangers to one another.
And according to your own words, no doubt we all know -


Those who mock are among those most commonly labelled "trolls".
- or as another poster wrote of you -


a proper nitpicking twit. You don't seem to have much of a life

[scottish-guy]

Ladies - please!

This behaviour is most unseemly!

Could you not just synchronise your diaries for a partially-clothed mud-wrestling bout (including hair-pulling), like the rest of us?

:ymparty:

[fountainhall]

SG - My! My! That's a funny old post given some of the more obviously stinging remarks that have been posted here in recent months. Why spoil the fun? After all, that's what kommentariat enjoys, as he himself recently posted (about another poster) -


I've yanked your chain (again) and you have responded (as anticipated). I've had my fun with you for the day; let's see what tomorrow brings.

[scottish-guy]

My post was somewhat less than serious

[fountainhall]

Since we're talking about fun, what's even more hilarious is that kommentariat and accuracy are hardly "strangers to one another" -


Chavez at least had Argentina's oil revenues to rely on
Those darn spell checks have a lot to answer for! ;)

[scottish-guy]

Maybe Chavez had special access.

But hey - haven't you heard - having the largest oil reserves in Western Europe would be an enormous burden to an independent Scotland - if you believe the shite spouted by the NO camp :))

[fountainhall]

Maybe Chavez had special access
To Argentina? If he was sending oil to Argentina he'd have needed a 5,000 km pipeline (and that's as the crow flies)! :))

Re North Sea Oil, I've written somewhere before about the UK government's suppression in the mid 1970s of Professor McCrone's Report. This only came to light 30 years later as a result of a request under the Freedom for Information Act. The McCrone Report made it clear that an independent Scotland could have become as rich as Switzerland and the Scottish currency as valuable as the Norwegian kroner (Norway is the other European country with major offshore oil reserves). Annual revenues would have yielded an independent Scotland an estimated ┬г3 billion by 1980. That estimate was made when the price of a barrel of oil was approx. US$12! Now that's the kind of burden any country would like to have!

Since we're talking about fun, what's even more hilarious is kommentariat's statement that fountainhall and accuracy are hardly "strangers to one another"
I've yanked your chain (again) and you have responded (as anticipated). I've had my fun with you for the day; let's see what tomorrow brings.It's all just so easy :ymdevil:

[fountainhall]

Now we know that all your negative komments mean precisely zilch :)) (Damn, those spellcheckers again!)

I always thought those who loved yanking chains spent much of their time in public toilets.

I always thought those who loved yanking chains spent much of their time in public toilets.Thank god I'll never see you getting in my way at Silom Complex.

[fountainhall]

Tom Daley is another has-been and was by the time he came out.
Daley's Gold and Silver medals in the Commonwealth Games last week from a "has-been"? Keep yanking the chains at Silom Complex, kommentariat! I assume at least you get some success there - they do flush do they not?

[Nirish guy]

And let's face it, Tom Daley is another has-been.........

Daley is an over-hyped underachiever

A has-been and and underachiever eh ? Really ? :-) I think not, but good try guys.

"Tom Daley takes diving gold to be best solo act in Commonwealth pool" Commonwealth Games 2nd August 2014.
Source : http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/a ... games-2014 (http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/02/tom-daley-diving-gold-commonwealth-games-2014)

[LoveThailand]

Sour grapes is a fruit of choice for some :D
Well done, that Daley guy.

[scottish-guy]

If you consider the Commonwealth Games to be the pinnacle of international competition, fair enough - but few sportsmen do, and when it came to the Olympics, I'm sorry but he flopped spectacularly.

But u can still wank over him (although not literally)

:))

TKeep yanking the chains at Silom Complex, kommentariat! I assume at least you get some success there - they do flush do they not?I have to wash the cum off my hands and face somehow, surely that must be obvious.