Michael Gunning
ED&I Ambassador, the British Elite Athletes Association
Discover how this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics challenged outdated stereotypes about athletes, showcasing sports inclusivity and inspiring role models for future generations.
This summer provided the perfect antidote to two of the most poisonous views in sport: gay athletes are weak, and black people can’t swim. Team GB fans saw Tom Daley compete at his fifth Olympic Games, and we should take pride in a recognisable Olympian also being an inspirational LGBT figurehead. In the pool, Eva Okaro and Team Canada’s Josh Liendo, among others, smashed the notion that black people don’t belong in aquatic sports.
Overcoming prejudice and defying stereotypes
As a black, gay former professional swimmer, I grew up suppressing my sexuality and being told people with my skin colour can’t swim — while beating my contemporaries at national level. Repressing my true self held back my performances; pushing through tired, racist presumptions took a lot of energy.
I kept going because when I looked at my sporting heroes, there was very little to encourage me. I needed to create my own mould. Given the climate they endured, many LGBT athletes only felt ready to come out in retirement, and there remains just a handful of elite black swimmers.
I needed to create
my own mould.
Visibility can inspire others in sport
Representation would have meant so much. To be able to point to others ‘like me’ would have provided respite. I decided to switch from Great Britain to Jamaica in 2017, making me the country’s first openly gay athlete.
Now, during my competitive career and beyond, I make a conscious effort to be visible: to show young people that yes, gay men can be just as sporty as straight men and yes, black people can swim — fast!
If you can see it, you can be it
I know the impact of my actions. On a recent school visit, I became the first person a young boy chose to come out to. He’d been too scared before, but since then, his teacher says he’s come out to others and can finally be himself.
My perspective is optimistic, and I’m enthused by the progress so far. Yet, reality is all too clear: there are icons and pioneers of almost all minority characteristics today, but openly gay men remain rare in sport and Team GB featured no black male swimmers this year.
Every instance of representation sends a ripple through the next generation. In the decades to come, let us look back on Paris as a tidal wave for inclusion.
Michael Gunning is the ED&I Ambassador for the British Elite Athletes Association.
