Tom Daley ‘often’ speaks to closeted queer athletes who ‘don’t know what to do’ about coming out

Former Olympic diver Tom Daley has revealed he is “often” contacted by closeted queer athletes who “don’t know what to do” about coming out.

Speaking on the Just For Variety podcast, the five-time Olympic medal winner said that he hopes to be a “sounding board” for sportspeople who are struggling with their sexuality.

He said he is “quite often” contacted by closeted athletes on social media, who are frequently “from lots of places where it’s illegal to be gay”.

“They don’t know what to do, how to navigate and obviously coming out in certain places is a very different experience than coming out in the UK or the US so it can be quite dangerous,” he explained.

“I always say to them that I can be there as a sounding board just because it is a very lonely experience.”

Tom Daley, now 31, came out as gay via a YouTube video in December 2013 when he was 19-years-old. The diver and proficient knitter has been in a relationship with Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black since that same year. The pair are married with two children, Robbie and Phoenix.

During his conversation on the podcast, Daley reflected on his own, challenging experience of accepting his sexuality as a teenager. 

“Growing up, on whatever scale it is, you hide who you are. You try and overachieve in other areas because you want to distract from the thing that’s ‘wrong’ about you. It’s a really challenging thing to grow up as a queer kid,” he said.

“It was a really challenging thing to ever have a chance to explore who I was when I was in the public eye in the UK because I thought everyone would be looking or challenging or thinking, ‘Oh, what about this? Why is he doing that?’

“It was a really lonely experience growing up and having to keep everything so secret about who I was.”

As such, he said he tries to offer support to queer athletes who are still closeted as he knows how difficult it can be.

“Don’t struggle through it alone. Even if you can find a person that you really really trust,” he added as words of advice.

“Because struggling alone and keeping that a secret for so long even if you’re not ready to come out, just being able to have that one person you can confide in and talk about your struggles openly, at least have one person you can truly be your authentic self around. It’s exhausting keeping it all bottled up.”

Tom Daley retired from diving in August 2024, after winning a silver medal in the men’s 10-metre synchronised diving event, alongside his diving partner Noah Williams, at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

He has just released a new documentary 1.6 Seconds, chronicling his diving career, his experience of coming out as gay, and life with his husband and children.

1.6 Seconds is streaming on Discovery Plus and Olympics.com.

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