I tried to shut out world: Ian Thorpe

Swimming great Ian Thorpe on Thursday revealed he has battled mental health issues since his teenage years as he opened up about his struggle with depression.

Australia’s most decorated Olympian, with five gold medals at the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Games, was admitted to a rehabilitation facility for the condition in 2014 after being found disoriented on a Sydney street.

The 33-year-old has said previously that he kept the problem secret from his loved ones, but is now part of Young Minds Matter, a campaign designed to raise awareness of children’s mental health issues backed by Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton.

“I am someone who has struggled with mental health issues since I was a teen,” Thorpe wrote in a blog post for news website Huffington Post Australia.

“From the outside, many would not see my pain nor be able to relate to the sometimes-daily struggle I was facing.

“This is part of the deception of depression and also mental illness: what may appear at face value is a stark difference from the agony that lies within.”

Thorpe admitted that in the past he sometimes became “a hermit and tried to shut out the world” as he encouraged young people to recognise and confront any mental health issues.