Timo Cavelius Becomes First Out Gay Man in Olympic Judo

July 2, 2024
ALEXANDER

Timo Cavelius Becomes First Out Gay Man in Olympic Judo

Little by little our gay representation at this year's Paris Olympics is growing and growing, last time we checked in on the world of sports, we reported that gay stud and sports climber Campbell Harrison was making history as the first openly gay competitor in his field. Well, we can add another hottie to that list. German athlete Timo Cavelius will be the first openly gay athlete to compete in judo at the Paris Olympics 2024.

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This 27-year-old athlete qualified for the Olympics at a major competition in Kazakhstan, after trying for years to make it on the team. He will compete on July 30th, with the gold medal winner in his category having to place 1st in six matches that day.

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Cavelius has been out since he was 15 years old, after bringing a boyfriend to a match and telling everyone he was just a friend. He stated on Instagram:

“I didn’t have the courage to say that he was my steady boyfriend,” he said. “It was just exhausting always acting as if I had a girlfriend or was attracted to the opposite sex.”

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His professional coming out was courtesy of his sports psychologist. In his sport, psychology is used to help de-stress during a match. He talked about his sexuality openly, and the therapist talked him through it and told him coming out was entirely his choice. He had already come out to friends and family so he decided being true to himself and his sexuality was the right way to go.

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He told a Geman interviewer that a tabloid wanted to do a story on his coming out, but that there was no drama and no fanfare so there wasn't really a big story there. He competes regularly against countries where being gay is still a big sports no-no and says that some of his opponents view him as week, but that they are not hesitant to compete against him, despite the physicality and close contact in judo.