U.S. Swimmer Abrahm DeVine Came Out

Many athletes wait until they are on the world's stage before they choose to come out. It makes sense - they want to build a fan base and keep their endorsements secure before taking the leap. Those rules don't apply to Abrahm DeVine. The 22-year old swimmer came out during a recent interview with Swimming World Magazine.

 

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Tongues out for SMOC

A post shared by Abrahm DeVine (@abrahmdevine) on Jun 21, 2018 at 7:39pm PDT

"I’m a gay athlete," he told the magazine. "There aren’t too many of us, so when I came out to my college team, that was a really tough time for me."

He admitted that he later found that he was worried for no reason. Once out to his teammates, DeVine said he received nothing but love and support.

 

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Doin' big things

A post shared by Abrahm DeVine (@abrahmdevine) on Aug 7, 2018 at 8:59pm PDT

"I remember that being a pretty emotional time, and just feeling my whole team wrap around me and feeling that love in a place where I hadn’t really felt it, that was definitely pretty special for me," he said, looking back on the moment he decided to come out of the closet. "Just seeing them kind of prove me wrong was definitely special, something I’ll never forget."

 

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Getting ready to swim fast this weekend! Woo!

A post shared by Abrahm DeVine (@abrahmdevine) on Jun 5, 2018 at 7:56pm PDT

Many athletes, like DeVine, find it especially hard to come out when they are actively playing a sport. There's a sense of masculinity and an expected behavior that comes along with being a player - and coming out as gay can set you aside from the norm. In the past, it's also been hard for athletes to find the right support system after identifying as gay 0r bisexual, so they chose not to.

"There’s a culture that is created in a lot of sports where being gay is an insult," said DeVine. Luckily that's all changing with the times.