Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe is gay and he confirmed it in an interview with a British talk show host in Australia's Channel 10. The confession came after years of denying his sexuality.

The five-time swimming gold medalist told Michael Parkinsons that the realization about his sexuality came only recently.

"I'm not straight and this is only something that very recently - we're talking in the past two weeks - I've been comfortable telling the closest people around me exactly that," he said, per USA Today.

In his autobiography "This is Me" published in 2012, Ian Thorpe addressed the gay rumors when he wrote, "For the record, I am not gay and all of my sexual experiences have been straight. I'm attracted to women, I love children, and aspire to have a family one day."

Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe is gay and he wished he had come out sooner.

"I've wanted to [come out] for some time, but I couldn't, I didn't feel as though I could. The problem was, I was asked at such a young age about my sexuality," he said, according to Australia News.com.

"I didn't accept it in myself. I didn't want to be gay. I was still gay at the end of the day," he said. "What happened was, I felt that the lie had become so big that I didn't want people to question my integrity and a little bit of ego comes into this. I didn't want people to think that I had lied about everything."

Now Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe is comfortable being gay, "and I don't want people to feel the same way I did. You can grow up, you can be comfortable and you can be gay."

"I am telling the world that I am gay ... and I hope this makes it easier for others now, and even if you've held it in for years, it feels easier to get it out,." Ian Thorpe added.