Olympians Dan Jervis and Bruce Mouat describe the power that comes with being gay and out in sports
publicly came out as gay last January. Jervis recently sat down with fellow gay British Olympian Bruce Mouat for a conversation about coming out, and the freedom he’s felt since then. (Mouat, a curler who became the first gay man to win a Winter Olympics medal outside of figure skating in almost a century, came out in December 2021.)A post shared by Daniel Jervis OLY (@danieljervis1)Jervis, 27, came out in an interview with BBC prior to the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a quadrennial event for athletes in the Commonwealth of Nations.
The two-time Olympic medal winner–he won bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018–said he intentionally came out before the Commonwealth Games because homosexuality is still illegal in multiple participating countries.
He wanted to be visible on the world stage. In his conversation with Mouat, Jervis said the feeling of relief was empowering.“I try to tell people who are in that moment or are just about to come out or have come out already, that it’s such an amazing experience,” he said. “I completely understand that we’re in a very privileged position in that we’ve been accepted and that some people don’t have that, but that moment when it’s out there and the weight has been lifted off your shoulders, you can’t quite describe it.”Mouat, for his part, says Team Britain’s welcoming environment made it easy for him to compete as an out gay man. “It’s amazing to see that we have so many athletes in Team GB that feel comfortable enough to tell their teammates and feel comfortable in their sport,” he said.
Mouat, 28, has thrived since coming out. Last April, the top British curler won another gold medal in the World Men’s Curling Championship.In a previous interview with the BBC, Mouat said he realized that.
