Swimming: Ian Thorpe

Ian Thorpe, the world's highest-profile swimmer, has reacted angrily to suggestions that his growing weight is undermining his chances at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and to innuendo about his private life.

Thorpe says he has left Sydney to train in Los Angeles to escape public attention that has become so intense that the 23-year-old admits to thinking almost daily of retiring from competitive swimming.

Speaking on an Australian cable television show due to be broadcast last night, Thorpe insisted he had a healthy diet and denied claims that he had an excessive party lifestyle. He also said he was training 40 hours a week and laughed off the persistent rumours that he is gay.

"It sounds like a real glamorous life in Hollywood, but really it's not," Thorpe said, before lamenting the level of press intrusion into his life. "I kind of hoped that I could have some privacy," he said. "There is really a line there that has been blatantly abused."

As for his sexuality, Thorpe said he was beyond worrying. "People will tell you black and blue that I am gay," he says. "There is no basis for what they are saying. It's no big deal because that doesn't affect any part of my life."

The American Aaron Peirsol, meanwhile, has set a world record in the 200m backstroke at the Pan Pacific Championships in British Columbia while the US men's team clocked a world best in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Peirsol pipped his compatriot Michael Phelps to win in 1.54.44, breaking his own world record by more than two-tenths of a second. The American men set a new mark of 3.12.46 in the 4x100. Phelps, Cullen Jones, Neil Walker and Jason Lezak eclipsed South Africa's record of 3.13.17 .