Er, the conversion you meant to do was 17.5 American = 16 UK. European shoe size would be somewhere in the 50s....
Ian Thorpe apparently was the subject of rumor-mongering about his being gay (he's <a href="http://www.twentyfourseven.com.au/index.php3?Issue=13&feat=45">not</a>). So perhaps that's where the sensitivity comes from.