Olympian Daniel Kowalski has announced that he is gay! After winning four Olympic swimming medals for Australia, he finally decided that he was ”tired of living a lie.”
Kowalski was inspired by the coming out of rugby league player Ian Roberts, Olympic gold-medal winner diver Matthew Mitcham and international rugby champ Garth Thomas.
Do you think that this sudden outbreak of these men in the spotlight feeling compelled to tell the public about their personal lives is damaging not only their reputation, but the Olympics as well? Is society used to this type of thing or would we all rather have these men keep their intimate secrets to themselves?
12 comments:
I don't think that it is damaging their reputation. It is becoming more and more common now for people to come out and its more people in the spot light now than ever. I think that it is only going to progress and we are going to continue to see this happen.
I don't think that society is necessarily used to this thing but I don't think that we rather men or women keep their intimate secrets to themselves.
Straight people don't have to so why should gay people have to.
More than likely -- people are going to appreciate and respect them more for being honest than lying about it...
I don't think that an athlete coming out of the closet would damage their reputation and I don't see how that would hurt the reputation of the Olympics in general.
In this day and age i don't believe it would affect either. However, go like fifty years back, and you would find a huge loss in viewers and support because such action would be complete damnation.
I don't think this will effect the reputation of the olympics. It seems that our culture is somewhat used to it. Now if it was an american swimmer, say someone like micheal felps then it seems it would be more of an issue. But the rest of the world doesn't seem to have a huge problem with homosexuality of an athlete.
I don't think it should ever matter what an athlete does in his or her personal life. I don't care at all what Tiger Woods did, I just care how he plays golf (If I cared about golf at all). But I think this swimmer should have come out. In our world, it isn't acceptable to be gay, and we are going to have to accept it at some point. I really think that in fifty years, "coming out" won't even be an issue, and we will be so ashamed of ourselves for how hard we used to make it.
Good for this guy for feeling like he doesn't have to hide his life because of the ridiculous stereotypes involving athleticism/masculinity. I hope this helps to dismiss some of the negative mindsets that exist in our world.
i agree with nina, who cares if they are gay or straight? regardless of people's personal opinions on the issue, one's sexual preference does not hinder one's ability to perform athletically. the olympics represents the passion and competitive spirit humanity has for sports, so sexual orientation should not be considered when evaluating atheletes. good example with tiger woods. people who are seriously disturbed by what he did care too much about the athlete and dont care enough about golf...
yeah good for him. whether this guy likes guys or girls in his personal life has nothing to do with his athletic career, so he should be able to do what he wants without people making a big deal about it.
I agree with Dusten and Nina that whether or not he's straight doesn't effect his ability to perform athletically. I think it's great that he chose to come out and tell the truth.
I don't think that their revealing of this information is hurting their reputations or the reputation of the Olympics either. If it IS hurting their reputation it sincerely shouldn't. Some people may be put off by the fact that they are athletes and revealing this information but I think its great!
This reminds me of the movie "I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry in which the firefighter guys shock everyone by getting married. Like Chuck and Larry, I think this action of the Australia Olympic swimmer will let other people be more confident and acceptive of him/herself; and likewise other people toward the homosexual communities.
I don't think it's damaging to their reputation but I also don't think there are any upsides to these men talking about their personal lives. I guess there is a chance that other gay men might find it comforting that even world class athletes struggle with some of the same issues they face. Even though this is accepted for the most part, there are still many people who frown upon gay relationships. I don't really think it's damaging to the Olypics. I believe most of society is used to this type of thing. If our society watches talk shows with gay hosts, tunes into sitcoms about gay relationships, and spends their money on movies about gay affairs, then I would say we are definitely used to it.
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