Canadian Swimmer Strives for His Best - and It Started with Coming Out

Canadian swimmer Markus Thormeyer felt that the only way to reach his full potential - not just as a human being, but as an athlete - would be to come out publicly.

In 2015, that's exactly what he did, recalls Swimming World.

The magazine posted about Thormeyer after the out athlete gave an interview to LGBTQ sports site Outsports, in which the champion swimmer talked about watching his teammates full devotion, body and soul, to the sport - and realized that he wasn't competing at that same level, thanks to the secret he was harboring.

Said Thrmeyer:

They were exposing their most raw essence in the pool every day, but I would come to the pool emotionally guarded and not do the same.

Thormeyer went on to describe the psychological and emotional torture that the closet inflicted:

Hiding my sexuality became a huge distraction to my training and was starting to affect the relationships with my teammates too. Some days I dreaded going to the pool in fear that my sexuality would be exposed. I'd show up late and leave early to social gatherings and workouts. Some days it would even spiral and I would question why I was swimming and be scared of my own goals.

There was the only way to fix the situation - and the courageous sportsman took it. Thormeyer related how, when he felt the moment was right, he clued his teammates in... and the amazing response he got from them:

I casually said that I had never been on a date with a guy before and I was kind of scared of it. That I'd probably be a nervous wreck and ruin it.

Then, without a sliver of judgment or skipping a beat, my friends told me that I'd probably be fine on a date as long as I just had a good time and just was comfortable being myself.

Freed from the "distractions" and the "exhausting act" of dwelling in the closet, Thormeyer and a half dozen of his teammates made the cut for the 2016 Olympics.

He's been winning ever since. And now, Thormeyer added, he has "decided to join Team Canada's OneTeam, which promotes LGBT+ inclusion in sport, because I want to share my story and be able to spread the message that it's OK to be gay."

At the top of his game, the athlete summarized: "Life is much better when you fully embrace you for who you are."

Thormeyer isn't the only champion Canadian swimmer to have knocked down the closet door. Mark Tewksbury didn't come out until after he had won the gold in Barcelona in 1992, but his forthright memoir "caused quite a stir," as Tewksbury told EDGE back in 2006.