Thaindian News

Sydney, April 18 (DPA) Former Olympic swimmer Daniel Kowalski Sunday admitted being a homosexual.
Kowalski, 34, who won four Olympic medals, told The Sunday Age he was “tired of living a lie” and that he hoped to inspire other gay people.

The nation has out-and-proud cabinet ministers, ambassadors, high court judges and religious leaders, but the only professional male athletes, who have come out in open about their orientation, have been the former rugby player Ian Roberts and Matthew Mitcham, who denied China a clean sweep in the diving medals at the Beijing Olympics.

“I felt really compelled to do it because it’s very tough to live a closeted existence,” said Kowalski, who at the Atlanta Games in 1996 became the first swimmer in 92 years to win medals in all of the freestyle events.

Kowalski, now among the world’s best ocean swimmers, was overshadowed throughout his career by fellow Australians Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett.

“On the sporting side, I lost to some amazing champions, so I’m not for a second saying that this is the reason I didn’t win,” he said. “(But) I often wonder if the lack of self-confidence and lack of identity in many ways held me back from reaching my potential.”

Kowalski said he didn’t expect more male athletes to come out but urged honesty upon them.

“There’ll be hard times but you surround yourself with great, supportive people who love you for you and you’ll be OK,” he said.

Among Australia’s triumvirate of gay jocks, Mitcham is the only one not in retirement. Amazingly, he was the only out-of-the-closet gay man in Beijing’s 10,000-strong athletes’ village.

Kowalski said that, in retirement, he hankered after what most young people wanted: “I look for all the things straight people do. I want to fall in love and be happy and be proud of who I am.”