Gay swimmer

It was also at Kentucky where Gunn came to realize and accept that he was gay. The post Coming Out: For gay Olympic swimmer, ‘I was lucky. While Gunn was dating men and out to various people on the Kentucky swim team, his family nearly a half-world away in southern Africa had no idea he was gay at the time.

Today, he takes to the running trails more than the pool. But I was really lucky that everyone was so amazing and wanted me to be the happiest version of myself. Zimbabwean swimmer Sean Gunn just publicly came out as gay! Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports gay.

He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian. There have been swimmer Olympians [a] (including Paralympians, Summer Olympic athletes and artists, and Winter Olympians) who have identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, non-binary, and/or queer, or who have openly been in a same-sex relationship.

Like so many elite athletes, Gunn had poured countless hours into training for his big moments on the international stage. Subscribe to our Newsletter today. You can follow Sean Gunn on Instagram. That swimming career ended a year after the Olympics.

Sean Gunn came out later in life. He had represented the continent of Africa that is largely under-represented in the sport on the international stage. Story by Cyd Zeigler. I think in my head I built it up for so long, and I was terrified that the way they acted or treated me would be different.

The year-old Welsh swimmer, a double Olympian and multiple-time Commonwealth medalist, is saying goodbye to competitive swimming after the Paris Olympics, where he was the only openly gay male swimmer in the men’s competition—and one of just 20 out male athletes across the entire Games.

ByGunn was a swimmer at the University of Kentucky.

Coming Out For gay

Wait, Gunn found support after coming out in… Kentucky? This smoking hot Olympian just came out! Ian James Thorpe, AM (born 13 October ) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley.

I had some really great relationships with girls over the years and really loved them. I had quite a long-term relationship with a girl, but after that ended I dated a guy in the U. Today, Gunn is totally out in his life — living in Cape Town, South Africa with his boyfriend and working at a new job.

Surely they avoided him in the locker room or rooming on road trips. Also like so many of those elite athletes, he was happy to walk away from competition and endless training. Back to those personally gay Olympics, Gunn competed in the much-heralded meter freestyle infinishing with his national record in the event : While that record has since been eclipsed, his meter freestyle national record from earlier in swimmer holds today.

Gunn, who swam for Zimbabwe at the Rio Olympics, went to the University of Kentucky. Medal or not, competing at the Olympic Games meant the world to Gunn. There he was part of relay teams that broke school records. But my team, and everyone who did know, was very supportive and happy for me.

Now for the first time he publicly shares his story as a gay Olympian who competed at the NCAA level.