Paralympian Dimitri Pavade has been reflecting on his positive coming out experience. | Lionel Bonaventure / AFP via Getty Images

Dimitri Pavade, the Paralympic silver medalist who came out publicly as gay during Paris 2024, says he has been “touched” by the reaction to his personal news.

The 35-year-old posted to social media a month ago saying he wanted to “move forward regardless of what others may say,” having avoided speaking openly about his sexuality for many years.

Pavade was the runner-up in the long jump T64 category in Tokyo three years ago but frustratingly missed out on the podium at the Stade de France by just 0.06 meters.

His coming-out message went up on Instagram three days after the event, containing the line: “Yes, I’m short, I’m mixed-race, I’m one-legged. And to top it off, I’m gay!”

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There was widespread praise for the courage of Pavade, who brought the number of out gay and bi men at the Paris Paralympics to a record six. The previous three Paralympics each had just one: British para-dressage rider Sir Lee Pearson.

Now Pavade’s star is rising even further in France. Last weekend, he was on the front cover of the magazine edition of its major national sports title, “L’Equipe”.

He also made an appearance as a guest on one of the country’s biggest Saturday night talk shows, “Quelle Epoque!”

Chatting to the show’s host Lea Salame, he revealed that he’d had the text written for his post and stored on his phone since February 2022.

“I’d been wanting to do it for a little while… well, ever since I was 21 years old, really,” said Pavade, before explaining he was out to family and friends but that “no one knew in the world of sport.”

“I said to myself that I’d post it at the Paris Games because we need to change the way we look at things. We must support people who are still in the closet.”

Pavade was born and raised on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, an overseas department of France. He was working on the docks there as an 18-year-old when an 18-ton forklift rolled over his right leg shortly before Christmas 2007, leading to its amputation.

In 2013, he decided to relocate to southwest France and study prosthetics. It was there that he was first fitted with a blade and he took up para-athletics, making the national team by 2018.

He decided to notify his sponsors before posting the Instagram message.

“I told them that if I were to re-sign with them, it would be because they had accepted this and would want to associate with me.

“They said, ‘well, there’s no problem!’ So I re-signed.”

Even so, Pavade says the number of well wishes he received in his DMs after coming out was reassuring.

“I didn’t expect so much impact. Last week, I was in Toulouse, where the mayor was celebrating all the [local] athletes.

“A 6th-grade teacher came up to speak to me. ‘Mr. Pavade, there is a student in my class, a boy of Muslim origin. He said to me, ‘If you meet Dimitri Pavade, say thank you to him.’

“And he’s a 6th grader! I tell myself, that’s strong. It touches me.”

He says that since coming out, no other gay athletes have as yet approached him directly for advice, although he claims he was able to talk to another competitor who is gay while at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.

He believes the expectation of rejection still weighs heavily on those in the closet.

“They are afraid of judgment, they are afraid of being harassed,” he added. “The important thing for me is to be loved by my family.”

When he came out to his mother in the weeks immediately after his accident, she struggled at first. Upon learning that she had a gay son, she worried about how others might react and what would happen to Pavade in the future.

But it was his father’s words that reassured him.

“He told me, ‘listen — you are what you are, you will always remain my son and I love you as you are.’

“He made me cry.”

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