• Swimming

Olympic legend Thorpe admitted to rehab for depression

ESPN staff
February 3, 2014
Thorpe admitted to rehab

Five-time Olympic gold medallist Ian Thorpe has been admitted to rehab for depression treatment, his manager James Erskine has confirmed.

Thorpe was taken to Bankstown Hospital on Monday morning after the swimmer was found lost and confused on the street where his parents live in Sydney.

Residents had alerted police after Thorpe tried to get into a car he mistakenly thought belonged to a friend.

"He became disorientated and he tried to get into what he thought was a friend's car, but it wasn't his friend's car at all," Erskine said.

"Obviously someone saw it, or the owner of the car saw it, called the police and they came and realised it was Ian Thorpe.

"There was no alcohol involved. He hadn't been drinking or anything like that.

"The hospital then suggested - or more than suggested, I think - that he should go into rehab for depression and that's what's happened this afternoon."

Erskine says Thorpe had antidepressants in his system, and that he had taken painkillers for a shoulder operation last week.

Thorpe, 32, previously detailed his struggles with depression in his 2012 autobiography. In the book he said he used to turn to alcohol "to rid [his] head of terrible thoughts."

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