The Australian Tokyo Olympics team boss has backed an independent investigation into the leaking of Ian Thorpe's drug test results more than a decade ago.
Chef de mission Ian Chesterman has called for the "absolute pursuit of truth" into the 2007 controversy involving the five-time gold medal-winning Australian Olympic swimming great.
The issue has resurfaced in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games, with world swimming's new boss quoted as saying he would support an investigation into how Thorpe's test results were leaked to the press.
"Ian Thorpe is an amazing Australia athlete and a great Australian Olympian," Chesterman said on Sunday.
"I fully believe that there should be an absolute pursuit of truth in this situation and I certainly hope we get to that point sooner rather than later."
In 2007, a French newspaper was given details of a drug sample Thorpe had returned the previous year, that showed abnormal levels of naturally occurring substances testosterone and luteinising hormone.
Australian doping officials and swimming's world governing body FINA subsequently cleared Thorpe of any wrongdoing.
But Thorpe later said his reputation would be "forever tarnished" by the leak.
Chesterman's endorsement of Thorpe came as the Australian team continued to assemble in Tokyo.
There are now 243 of the 487 Australian competitors in Japan, with 194 in the Tokyo athletes' village and the others at training camps and sub-sites elsewhere in Japan.
A delayed flight from Cairns brought 147 athletes and they were greeted at the Australian team headquarters at 3am on Sunday.
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