Diving seems to be the consensus “favorite sport” of gay men at these Paris Olympics.
To be sure, everybody has their own favorite sport. Yet as swimmers have for years ditched the traditional “speedo” for longer leggings, it’s the divers and divers alone who who off their bods like no one else.
And yes, men do love something pretty to look at.
Yet while diving — with all its artistry and virtually no clothing — might be considered by some a “gay sport,” there actually haven’t been that many out gay men at the elite level.
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Matthew Mitcham is the godfather of out gay Olympic athletes, having coming out months ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He proceeded to perform the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history, the only person to stop a sweep of Olympic diving gold by the China team.
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Of course, Greg Louganis — possibly the greatest-ever athlete in diving — came out publicly shortly after his competition career. If Mitcham is the godfather, Louganis is the god.
Since then, Tom Daley has won a gold medal in synchronized diving, at the Tokyo Olympics. Daley is the only publicly out diver that Outsports knows of at the Paris Olympics.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, there was only Daley and Brazil diver Ian Matos who were publicly out.
Here are some other athletes — some straight, some gay, some otherwise — whom the gays may want to watch during what seems to be the most popular Olympic sport amongst gay men.
