Despite there being thousands if not hundreds of thousands of men and women in professional sports, very few have come out as lesbian, gay, bi or transgender.
We take a look at the brave few who have come out as LGBT over the last couple of years.
Tom Daley
Probably one of the most famous coming out stories of recently years. Daley decided to come out as bisexual through a video on YouTube. He later came out as gay on national TV on a Keith Lemon show.
Gus Kenworthy
Olympian medalist Gus came out in 2015 in an interview with EPSN.
Liam Davis
A high profile footballer, Liam Davis came out as gay in a newspaper interview in 2014. He said,
‘I personally hope that over the next 10 years I’m not the only gay footballer out there. Nobody wants to be forced out, but I hope they can look and see there is someone out there who has done it.
Ian Thorpe
Swimming champion Ian Thorpe came out as gay in 2014. The gold medal Olympian said, “I’m not straight. And this is only something that very recently – in the past two weeks – I’ve been comfortable telling the closest people around me exactly that.”
John Fennell
A then 19-year-old, Canadian Luger John Fennell came out during an interview in which he called hiding his sexuality a ‘suffocating’
Ian Matos
A Brazillian diver came out shortly after Tom Daley revealed his sexuality. He came out despite being told to stay in the closet until after the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Thomas Hitzlsperger
German born Thomas came out as gay in January 2014. He was a football player for Aston Villa and West Ham.
Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner made headlines this year after revealing that she is a woman. She was an Olympian champion known as Bruce Jenner. She is the highest profile professional athlete to ever come out as transgender.
Sam Stanley
Sam became the first professional English pro rugby player to come out in 2015.
Keegan Hirst
27-year-old Keegan Hirst came out in an interview with the Sunday Mirror.
David Benson
David a baseball player in the United States became the first pro baseball player to come out as gay. He did so on the same day that Keegan Hirst came out.
