It seems like there’s a new closeted athlete blogging every month, and March is no different. Meet Jon, a high school freshman in the Pacific Northwest, who calls himself the Rainbow Runner. He started posting February 20 and has already logged about a dozen posts. Only one person knows he’s gay, his best friend Kevin.
Ok well i will explain to you guys about my friendship with Kevin because he is probably one of the only friends that i will talk about on this blog. He is my bestest friend and literally knows every little thing about me. I wanted to come out to him on January 1, 2010 because i was like hey its a brand new decade start it off right! but i had to wait until January 3! It was like 3:30 in the morning and we were telling each other everything and i was like i have something to tell you. He basically came out for me which i am happy he did because i would never have been able to say I am gay to him.
He talks at length about track and cross-country (he’s a distance runner), posting his daily workout on the blog. He’s a dedicated athlete, and in his first practice for spring track it already started paying off:
Track started today! and our first run went great! Once all of the specific groups split up the distance people went out on a run. After like about a mile everyone seperated out into groups. I was in the front group with 2 seniors and another freshmen. But by the end of our run it was just me 1 senior and the other freshmen! That truely made my day because it let me know that all of the hard work that i put in this winter logging miles and doing workouts while my friends hungout payed off.
As a high school standout sprinter and distance runner myself, I’m excited to read more of Jon’s exploits as he moves through this spring track season and as he comes out to more people.
With all that said, I can’t verify that Jon is in fact exactly who and what he says he is. Hopefully he is.
on Mar 5th, 2010 at 4:17 PM
How do the parents of these kids not find out about it? Do they actually leave kids alone with computers now?
on Mar 5th, 2010 at 7:32 PM
Usually I blow these kind of blogs off but in reading this kid’s blog I found a nugget of real insight from him and something we older GLBT folks should take heed of.
“Just another thing i wanted to say was about how a few people in our community (gay community) give us a bad rep. about being sexaholics. Today i was reading one of my favorite blogs and i read some really disturbing questions that people had asked this 17 y/o. I was disgusted and for a quick instant was wondering if all gay men are like this. Luckily i came to my senses remembered some of the extremely nice people i have met on these blogs and thought this isnt everyone just a little group. For all of the more mature readers out their thanks for all that you do. (green and purple
)”
The kid makes a darn good point and I commend him for it. Jon thanks for calling us on the point. Pretty keen insight for a 17 yo. Keep up the good work and your blog will definitely be one I keep in the RSS reader.
on Mar 6th, 2010 at 9:39 AM
More closeted HS athlete blogs, Jim? Am I seeing a trend (or is it a fetish?)
on Mar 6th, 2010 at 10:32 AM
DR see my comment.
on Mar 6th, 2010 at 4:04 PM
Why should I read your comment, RBear, what is your point? Jim has a penchant for finding and linking and publicizing all of these “closeted athlete” blogs, some of which have been EXTREMELY questionable in terms of veracity. I find the fascination with them to be quote disturbing.
While I understand there is a certain sense of anonymity in the world of blogging, I find Jim’s fascination with the closeted baseball player, rugby player, high school hockey player and now runner (and wasn’t there a swimmer or something at some point, too?) to be very disturbing. Especially his fascination with the HS kids. I come here to read about gays and sports, and some of these blogs have been questionable in both respects.
on Mar 6th, 2010 at 4:35 PM
I find it really funny that you guys are questioning whether i am real. If you think i am fake then dont read my blog, but if you actually want to hear about the struggles and the happy times of a real high school athlete. Then i invite you to come check out my blog.
on Mar 6th, 2010 at 6:28 PM
“Jim has a penchant for finding and linking and publicizing all of these “closeted athlete” blogs.”
Um, this blog was discovered by Cyd, who wrote the item.
And since you love them so much, there’s another one coming next week, this time about a basketball player.
on Mar 6th, 2010 at 7:42 PM
sheesh is there a closeted athlete blog for every sport now? is someone running a clever little cottage industry here? is outsports in on it?
if so, good work… and I want in! can I be a closeted poker player? I’ll be more than happy to do some recon work in Vegas! and when can we start charging $9.95 per month for access to all these sites? after a year? 2 years?
Let’s get the dollars flowing fellas! $$
$$
on Mar 7th, 2010 at 8:39 AM
“And since you love them so much, there’s another one coming next week, this time about a basketball player.”
___________________________________________________
*groan*
…another child or maybe someone pretending to be a pro/semi pro player like the others? Just to get people’s rocks off?
Cyd may have found it, Jim, but as co-founder you’re just as responsible for what gets published here as he is. And don’t forget, Jim….You gave us the swimmer lusting for his teammate, the teen hockey player, the baseball player calling it quits, the closeted rugby player, closeted high school coach, etc.
on Mar 7th, 2010 at 6:27 PM
DR, do you see sex in EVERYTHING? I think YOU’RE the one with the fetish. Are you just jealous that kids today, even if they aren’t in a position to come out, can still express themselves and connect with people like them?
on Mar 7th, 2010 at 9:28 PM
Joe, I’ll answer each of your accusations:
1. I’m not the one drawing the readership’s attention to a blog post entitled “gay high school swimmers lust for teammate”. I’m not the one drawing attention to a blog allegedly written by a minor league baseball player, a large part of which is devoted to posting pics of men who have allegedly sent him their pics in the hopes of getting in his pants. This isn’t my interpretation of the blogs Joe and Cyd are finding, this is what is contained in them. Hardly me seeing sex in the blog where it doesn’t exist. It’s pretty much out there, Joe.
2. As for the kids: You mean to tell me that in the entirety of the internet, the best that can be found are blogs written by teenagers? Jim and Cyd can’t find any blogs written by healthy, openly gay men and women who are athletes? With all the gay games athletes, for example? Our only options are anonymous teens and barely credible “anonymous” adult blogs?
As for your attempt at armchair psych, you couldn’t be more off, Joe. I have been out for 20 years, and competed in some of the roughest sports as an openly gay man, and I have the medals in kickboxing/full-contact karate and brazilian jiu jitsu to prove it. I’m beyond the whole “am I or aren’t I gay and can I compete as such”. Been there, done that. I’m more interested in talking to men in the same place I am, open and competing in whatever sport they want as opposed to reading blogs by teenage boys…
on Mar 8th, 2010 at 5:25 AM
Good god some of you guys are pathetic when it comes to insulting each other.
Live and let live, stop the bullshit and lookout for each other.
on Mar 9th, 2010 at 8:53 AM
DR, did you ever think that Jim and Cyd might be doing a service for other young gay athletes who have yet to come out but who have found this site and can now read about other gay athletes and possibly connect with their gay peers? You may have come out many years ago, but the blog, or types of blogs, you’re whining about may be very helpful to someone else in their process of realizing and accepting their own sexuality.
Come on man. If you don’t want to read about a blog by a closeted gay high school athlete … then don’t. Simply skip over that article. There is plenty of other content on this site for you and I and others to read. But please don’t climb up on a soap box and bitch about content that you don’t particularly like. I’m sure those that enjoy the blogs far out number you. I really don’t mean to condescend, but it’s not all about you. As DJ said, “live and let live.”
on Mar 10th, 2010 at 3:29 AM
DR – I’m sure there are great blogs out there written by “healthy, openly gay athletes”, and that Outsports readers (yourself and myself included) would love to peruse them. But the particular subgenre of blog under discussion here does tell stories that are legitimately interesting to a portion of this site’s readership – in that they come from people with TWO major pressures against outing themselves (viz. the tumult of high school and the often-homophobic world of competitive athletics), and detail how the authors deal with these pressures.
on Mar 10th, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Hey DR, to answer your question (Jim and Cyd can’t find any blogs written by healthy, openly gay men and women who are athletes?) – no, we can’t. Please send all of them you’ve found so we can link to them.
on Jan 11th, 2011 at 4:03 PM
OMG! Where can I get those rainbow colored sandals?
on Feb 3rd, 2012 at 1:51 AM
Kudos to Jon!
I would love to read about today’s high school athletes if for no other reason to remind me of how it was for me back in high school as a gay (closeted) runner.
I wish him the best!
ps. College track is REALLY something to look forward to!