Thaindian News

Sydney, Feb. 13 (ANI): Australian swimming great Ian Thorpe has admitted that the recession has taken its toll on his business empire.

The Olympic legend has recently suffered serious cashflow problems after shedding lucrative sponsorship deals to focus on his university studies.

Thorpe’s empire included involvement in a floundering Chinese private equity fund, a share in an online mortgage auction site, Thorpedo sports drinks and tuna steaks, and own-brand underwear and toiletries.Thorpe has now streamlined his interests, declaring he wants to lead “a happy and simple life”.”Like my sporting career, one of my strengths is my resilience to bounce back from any setback,” The Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.The 28-year-old is believed to have signed two new sponsorship deals this week, including one for a cookbook.

When broadcaster Alan Jones became aware of his friend’s situation, he personally rang Westpac boss Gail Kelly to seek her help in restructuring the swimmer’s financial affairs.”Ian’s had no training in this area because he’s spent so much of his life in a swimming pool. So I rang Gail Kelly for him. Simple as that. I said to Gail, ‘Do you know Ian Thorpe’s been banking with you since he was 15′,” he said.”Gail got someone from her personal banking unit, who coincidently lived just two streets away from Ian - and they set up an appointment,” he added.Thorpe recently completed his first year of a double degree in linguistics and psychology. He will scale back his studies to part-time this year so he can devote more time to his business and charity interests. (ANI)