Olympic Water Polo Player Comes Out Ahead of Rio Games

Move over, Tom Daley. There’s a new out summer Olympic hopeful jumping in the pool.

Víctor Gutiérrez, 25, who plays on the Spanish water polo headed to Rio this summer, came out publicly as gay in an interview with Shangay magazine.

 

Este es el resultado de una decisión valiente y sopesada. Me costó decidirme pero estoy orgulloso de poner mi granito de arena en la visibilidad gay en el deporte. Gracias a mi familia que siempre me ha apoyado, a mis amigos incondicionales que han estado a mi lado, al equipo de Shangay por el cuidadísimo reportaje, y a todos aquellos que de una manera u otra me han hecho ser la persona que soy. Y sobretodo a Javier Caceres Perez por ser la cabeza pensante y darme las fuerzas que necesitaba para dar este paso al frente. Este soy yo. Abrazos y besos para todos!

A photo posted by Victor Gutierrez (@victor_g91) on May 25, 2016 at 7:15am PDT

In his exclusive with the Spanish gay magazine, Gutiérrez highlighted that he had come out to family and friends and felt ready to make the next step by going public. He also pointed to “70 homophobic attacks in Madrid so far this year” as part of his motivation for coming out.

The Catholic country has enjoyed marriage equality for more than a decade, but resistance remains from conservative groups who are against LGBT rights.

The Rio games will begin Aug. 5.