Mark Bingham

Mark Bingham born 22 May 1970 (d. 11 September 2001)

Mark Kendall Bingham was an American public relations executive who founded his own company, the Bingham Group. He died at age 31 in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on board United Airlines Flight 93.

Bingham is believed to have been among the passengers who attempted to storm the cockpit to try to prevent the hijackers from using the plane to kill hundreds or thousands of additional victims. He made a brief mobile phone call to his mother, Alice Hoagland, shortly before the plane went down. Hoagland, a former flight attendant with United Airlines, later left a voice mail message on his mobile, instructing Bingham to reclaim the aircraft after it became apparent that Flight 93 was to be used in a suicide mission.

Bingham was survived by his former boyfriend of six years, Paul Holm, who says this was not the first time Bingham risked his life to protect the lives of others. In fact, he had twice successfully protected Holm from attempted muggings, one of which was at gunpoint. Holm describes Bingham as a brave, competitive man, saying, 'He hated to lose — at anything.' He was even known to proudly display a scar he received after being gored at the running of the bulls in Pamplona.

Bingham attended Los Gatos High School. He was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also president of his fraternity, Chi Psi. In college, he played for the UC Berkeley rugby team and helped them win a string of national championships.

A large athlete at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and 225 pounds (102 kg), he also played for the San Francisco Fog, a rugby union team.

The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament (Bingham Cup), an annual international rugby union competition predominantly for gay and bisexual men, was established in 2002 in his memory.

He is portrayed in the 2006 movie United 93 by gay actor Cheyenne Jackson.

Billy Bean

Billy Bean born 11 May 1964

William Daro 'Billy' Bean (born in Santa Ana, California) is a former Major League Baseball player who made news in 1999 when he made his homosexuality public.

Bean was a high-scoring outfielder in a career that lasted from 1987 through 1995: Detroit Tigers 1987-89, Los Angeles Dodgers 1989, San Diego Padres 1993-95. Bean joined the Detroit Tigers in 1987 tying an MLB record with four hits in his first major league game.

After acknowledging that he is gay, Bean went on to write a book, Going the Other Way: Lessons from a life in and out of Major League Baseball.

Bean is only the second former major league player to reveal his homosexuality; the late Los Angeles Dodger and Oakland Athletic Glenn Burke is the only other player to have acknowledged his homosexuality.

He appears occasionally on US television in various guises - acting and as a celebrity - and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

Mark Leduc

Mark Leduc born 4 May 1964 (d. 2009)

Mark Leduc was a former boxer from Toronto, Canada, who won a silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.

Mark Leduc was not a hero, at least not until 1992, when he won a silver medal for Canada at the Olympics in Barcelona. Before that singular accomplishment, he was only a tough kid. To his close friends, he was a hard man who happened to be gay. By the time he was 12 years old, Leduc was certain of only two things: his sexuality and his deep love of boxing. A friend invited him along to a gym in Toronto's east end, and it didn't take long before he was hooked. His parents separated when he was 15 and Leduc went to to live on the streets.

Leduc got into trouble for robbing a jewellery store at gunpoint. He had been told by an accomplice that it was an insurance scam: the owner wanted the place turned over and hired them to make it look real. Leduc grabbed the gold and gems, passed them over, pocketed a cash fee, and was picked up by the police a few weeks later. He was sentenced to over six years in prison.

After about 18 months inside, a guard took a shine to Leduc, and tried to secure him day passes so he could train in a real gym. The first application was rejected by the warden, but Leduc was ultimately awarded 72 hours a month in the outside world. He used his 'free' time sparingly: an hour to train here, a couple of hours to train there, a few more hours for a fight. He began to acquire a smart amateur record.

The 1984 Olympics came and went while Leduc languished in prison. He was released in time for the 1988 Summer Games trials, but failed to earn a spot on the team that was to go to South Korea. Leduc decided to stick with the sport for another four years. After winning both the national championship, and the gold medal at a preliminary international meet, Leduc was on his way to Barcelona, where he won silver.

Leduc turned pro in 1992 and had limited success. He retired in 1993.

Leduc came out as a gay man in 1994 in the TV documentary For the Love of the Game and attended Toronto’s Pride parade in 1999 as grand marshal (with Savoy Howe).

Leduc worked for and volunteered with the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation. His final occupation was that of set-builder and construction worker in the film industry.

Leduc died on July 22, 2009 in Toronto. He had collapsed in the sauna of a local hotel, and doctors suggested that his death may have resulted from heat stroke.

Andrew Goldstein

Andrew Goldstein born 25 March 1983

Andrew Goldstein is the first American male team-sport professional athlete to be openly gay during his playing career.

He had been a professional lacrosse goalkeeper for the Long Island Lizards of Major League Lacrosse. He was originally drafted by his hometown team, the Boston Cannons. As of 2007, he is in graduate school in Los Angeles.

A two-time All-American at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Goldstein made headlines off the field in 2005 when he was dubbed by ESPN to be 'the most accomplished male, team-sport athlete in North America to be openly gay during his playing career.'

He is also noted to be the only goalie to have scored a goal in an NCAA tournament game in the last three decades of the tournament.

In 2006, Goldstein was honored by being named to the OUT 100. He also received a prestigious 2006 GLAAD Media Award for the feature entitled 'Andrew Goldstein' which aired on ESPN 's Sportscenter.

Goldstein hails from a family of talented athletes as his father, Irwin Goldstein, an internationally renowned physician who was the lead author of the first paper on Viagra as it applied to erectile dysfunction, and sister played hockey for Brown University while his brother played lacrosse for Amherst.

A biochemistry and molecular biology major at Dartmouth, Goldstein will be pursuing a Ph.D in biology at UCLA with a specific focus on cancer.

Michael Sundin

Michael Sundin born 1 March 1961 (d. 1989)

Michael Sundin was a television presenter, actor, dancer and trampolinist, who was best remembered for his short spell as a Blue Peter presenter.

He was born in Low Fell, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. After winning five British titles and one World title in British & World Trampolining tournaments, he first entered showbusiness in 1980 when he appeared in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, with Barbara Windsor. He went on to make various television and theatre appearances, both as an actor and dancer, which led to a long run in the Cameron Mackintosh musical Cats, in which he played Bill Bailey in its West End run from 1982-83. He also appeared in the video for Culture Club's video for I'll Tumble 4 Ya in 1982.

In 1984, he began rehearsing the character Tik-Tok for the Walt Disney film Return to Oz, and this was covered by the long-running BBC children's magazine programme Blue Peter. Sundin impressed the editor, Biddy Baxter, and was invited to audition for the presenting vacancy left by Peter Duncan; it was his fortune that one of the audition items was to interview someone on a trampoline, and he presented his first programme on 13 September 1984.

After fronting 77 episodes, the editors and production team decided not to renew Sundin's contract after the summer break, because they felt that he had little rapport with the viewers and some parents complained about his perceived effeminacy - in fact he was sacked because Biddy Baxter thought he was gay. He presented his last show on 24 June 1985. Sundin was very unhappy about this decision, and made his feelings known in the tabloid press. In October 1985, The Daily Mirror printed photographs of him taking part in what was exaggeratingly described as a videotaped gay sex show, at London’s Hippodrome Theatre.

Sundin subsequently appeared in the 1987 film Lionheart (in which he was incorrectly credited as 'Michel Sundin'). After a UK theatre tour of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and a Japanese/Australian tour of Starlight Express from 1987-88, Sundin fell ill.

At the age of just 28, he died in the Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne. The Times newspaper reported (on 26 July 1989) that he had died of liver cancer, but in fact his death was AIDS-related, and a decision had been made that this information would not be released to the press.

Justin Fashanu

Justin Fashanu born 19 February 1961 (d. 1998)

Justinus Soni 'Justin' Fashanu was an English footballer.

Fashanu was the son of a Nigerian barrister living in England. When his parents split up he was sent, together with his younger brother John (who also became a professional footballer) to a Barnardo's home. When he was six, he and his brother were fostered by a family and brought up in Attleborough, Norfolk.

He began his career as an apprentice with Norwich City, turning professional towards the end of December 1978. He made his league debut in January 1979 and settled into the Norwich side scoring regularly and occasionally spectacularly. In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for a very spectacular goal against Liverpool. He subsequently became Britain's first £1m black footballer when he transferred to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in August 1981.

His career stalled as his professional relationship with Brian Clough deteriorated; Clough, it would appear, was disturbed by the rumours of Justin Fashanu's visits to gay nightclubs and bars. His goals and then confidence dried up as he failed to fit in with the playing and lifestyle demands of Clough, especially after Clough had discovered his homosexuality and barred him from even training with the side.

In August 1982 he was loaned to Southampton (scoring 3 goals in 9 appearances), and then in December that year was sold to local rivals Notts County for only £150,000. He scored 20 times in 64 games for the Magpies before moving to Brighton & Hove Albion in June 1985 for a fee of £115,000, where a knee injury looked to have finished his career. He went to the United States for surgery and began playing again, firstly with Los Angeles Heat and then with Edmonton Brickmen.

He returned to the UK and tried to resurrect his playing career, joining Manchester City in October 1989. He moved to West Ham United in November, before a trial with Ipswich Town. He joined Leyton Orient in March 1990 and subsequently joined Southall as player-coach before moving to Leatherhead.

In 1990, he publicly came out as gay in an interview with the tabloid press, becoming the only prominent player in English football so far to do so. Many former colleagues spoke out in anger against him, stating that homosexuals had no place in a team sport, and his brother John publicly disowned him. Although he claimed that he was generally well accepted by his fellow players, he freely admitted that they would often joke maliciously about his sexual orientation, and he also became the target of constant crowd abuse because of it.

He began a trial with Newcastle United in October 1991. In November 1991 he left Leatherhead to join Torquay United, apparently one of the few league clubs willing to give him a real chance. He hogged the limelight while at Plainmoor, with his lifestyle, in particular his relationship with Coronation Street actress Julie Goodyear spread over the tabloids, but he still managed to impress on the pitch and was made player-coach.

In February 1993, with Torquay battling against a second successive relegation, Fashanu applied for the vacant post of manager, but was turned down. Fashanu left to play for Airdrieonians soon after.

He left Airdrie in 1993, playing in Sweden with Trelleborg, before returning to Scotland, joining Heart of Midlothian in July 1993, but was sacked in April 1994 for 'unprofessional conduct' (he had attempted to sell false stories regarding him and a number of cabinet ministers to the press) and returned to the United States to coach a boys team in Georgia. He later moved to Australia to play for Adelaide City and then to New Zealand to play for Miramar Rangers in 1997, before joining Atlanta Ruckus in the spring of the same year, but was suspended for the playoffs for failure to comply with the terms of his contract. He then moved to Ellicott City, Maryland to coach Maryland Mania Club, a new professional team, following his officially announced retirement from the professional game.

He admitted in an interview with Gay Times that he wasn't fully prepared for the backlash that followed his coming out and that his career in football suffered 'heavy damage'.

In 1998 in the United States a 17-year-old claimed to police that on 25 March he found himself in Justin Fashanu's bed, after a drinking bout, being sexually assaulted. Justin Fashanu was questioned about this by the police on 3 April, but he was not held in custody. It was widely reported in the press that the police later arrived at his flat with a warrant to arrest him on charges of sexual assault. However, Justin Fashanu had already returned to England.

In May 1998, he hanged himself in a deserted lock-up garage he had broken into, in Shoreditch, London, after visiting Chariots Roman Spa (a gay sauna in the area). In his suicide note, he stated: 'I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family ... I hope the Jesus I love welcomes me, I will at last find peace.'

An inquest in London held on 9 September, 1998, heard that there was in fact no warrant out for Justin Fashanu's arrest and that the American police had already dropped the investigation because of lack of evidence.

Justin Fashanu is still the only professional player in British football to have come out as gay.

Greg Louganis

Greg Louganis born 29 January 1960

Gregory Efthimios Louganis is an American diver.

Louganis is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3m and 10m events. He received the James E. Sullivan Award in 1984 as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

Louganis was raised in California to adoptive parents. He is of Samoan/Swedish descent, and was adopted by a Greek-American family.

At age 16, he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event, behind Italian Klaus Dibiasi. Two years later, with Dibiasi retired, Louganis went on to win his first world title in the same event.

In 1978, he accepted a diving scholarship to the University of Miami where he studied theatre, but in 1981 transferred to the University of California, Irvine, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

Louganis was a favourite for two golds in the Moscow Olympics. But an American boycott of the games, instituted by US President Jimmy Carter, in protest of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, prevented him from participating.

Four years later, with the Games in Los Angeles, Louganis (who in the meantime had won two world titles in 1982) grabbed his revenge. With record scores and leads over his opponents, Louganis won gold medals in both the springboard and tower diving events.

After winning two more world championship titles in 1986, he repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, although not without difficulties. In one of his jumps in the springboard event, Louganis famously hit the diving board with his head while attempting a reverse 2 1/2 pike, but the resulting injury did not prevent him from going on to win the gold medal.

In 1994, Louganis announced he was gay and went on to compete in the Gay Games.

In 1995, Louganis's autobiography, entitled Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story, was published. Louganis revealed publicly that he was HIV-positive. The announcement caused some controversy because many felt he should have informed the treating doctors and those who used the pool of his HIV status following his injury, which caused light bleeding, in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. However, there was no medical danger to anyone using the pool following the injury.

Following the announcement of his HIV status, Louganis was dropped by most of his corporate sponsors, with the exception of Speedo, which continue to sponsor him to this day.

A 1997 made-for-TV movie was made from the book, starring Mario López as Louganis.

Since retiring from competitive diving, Louganis has done some acting and continues to speak out for various groups and organisations.

Greg Louganis Official Website

Graeme Obree

Graeme Obree born 11 September 1965

Graeme Obree, nicknamed 'The Flying Scotsman', is a Scottish racing cyclist who twice broke the world hour record, in July 1993 and April 1994, and was the individual pursuit world champion in 1993 and 1995. He was known for his unusual riding positions and for the 'Old Faithful' bicycle he built which included parts from a washing machine. He joined a professional team in France but was fired before his first race. He has suffered from clinical depression and twice attempted suicide. His life and exploits have been dramatised in the film The Flying Scotsman. Obree created some of the most radical innovations in the history of bicycle design.

Obree was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in March 2010.

In 2011 Obree disclosed in an interview with the Scottish Sun that he is gay and that his difficulty with coming to terms with his sexual orientation contributed to his earlier suicide attempts. 'I was brought up by a war generation; they grew up when gay people were put in jail. Being homosexual was so unthinkable that you just wouldn't be gay. I'd no inkling about anything, I just closed down.' He came out to his family in 2005.

John Curry

John Curry born 9 September 1949 (d. 1994)

John Curry was a British figure skater who won the Olympic and World Championships in 1976. He was famous for combining ballet and modern dance influences into his skating.

Curry was born in Birmingham, England. As a child, Curry wanted to become a dancer, but his father disapproved of dance as an activity for boys, so instead at the age of 7 he began to take figure skating lessons. For the first several years, Curry's involvement with skating was rather casual. Curry's father died when he was 16; he then moved to London to study with Arnold Gerschwiler, who coached him to his first British title in 1971. In 1972, Curry found an American sponsor who enabled him to study in the United States with Gus Lussi and Carlo Fassi. Fassi coached him to European, World, and Olympic titles in 1976.

Curry was the flag bearer at the 1976 Winter Olympics for Great Britain. He also was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1976. He was awarded the OBE.

As an amateur competitor, Curry was noted for his ballet-like posture and extension, and his superb body control. Along with Canadian skater Toller Cranston, Curry was responsible for bringing the artistic and presentation aspects of men's figure skating to a new level. At the peak of his competitive career, Curry was also accomplished both at compulsory figures and the athletic (jumping) aspects of free skating.

Following the 1976 World Championships, Curry turned professional and founded a touring skating company along the same lines as a traditional dance company. Besides choreographing routines for the company himself, Curry commissioned works from such noted dance choreographers as Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp.

Curry was reportedly a difficult person to get along with, and a dispute with the business managers of his company forced it to suspend operations in the mid-1980s. After that, Curry performed only rarely in public.

Although it was a potentially career-destroying move, Curry came out publicly as a gay man before the 1976 Winter Olympics, becoming one of the very few elite athletes to come out while still competing. Throughout his career, he consistently spoke candidly about his sexual orientation.

Curry's Broadway theatre credits include Icedancing (1978) as a performer and director and the 1980 revival of Brigadoon as an actor.

In 1987, Curry was diagnosed with HIV. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991. Prior to his death, he spoke openly to the press about both his disease and his sexual orientation and supported AIDS benefits with his skating. He spent the last years of his life with his mother. He died of an AIDS-related heart attack on on 15 April 1994 in Binton. He was just 44 years old.

Rudy Galindo

Rudy Galindo born 7 September 1969

Californian Val Joe 'Rudy' Galindo is an American figure skater. He skated pairs with Kristi Yamaguchi, winning the 1988 World Junior Championship and the US senior championships in 1989 and 1990. He also won the 1987 World Junior Championship in singles before temporarily giving up on singles competition in order to concentrate on pairs. After his partnership with Yamaguchi broke up in 1990, Galindo returned to singles competition. In 1996, Galindo won the men's title at the US Figure Skating Championships, becoming the oldest male to win this title in almost 50 years. He followed this win with a bronze medal at the 1996 World Championships.

Galindo retired from eligible competition in the summer of 1996. After being diagnosed as HIV positive and recovering from hip surgery, Rudy continues to tour with the Tom Collins' Champions on Ice show.

Galindo disclosed his homosexuality in Christine Brennan's book Inside Edge: A Revealing Journey Into the Secret World of Figure Skating, which was published shortly before he won his national title in 1996.

He published his autobiography Icebreaker in 1997.

Rudy Galindo

Ian Roberts

Ian Roberts born 31 July 1965

Although born in London, England, Ian Roberts' family moved to Australia when he was aged one and he is best known for his career as an Australian rugby league player - although he is now pursuing a career as an actor.

During his very successful Rugby career - he played in 13 test matches for Australia - he took the still unusual step for the world of professional sport and came out publicly as gay, gaining much attention in Australia and elsewhere as a result. Surprisingly, the rugby league world was mostly supportive and Roberts was praised for challenging myths about gay men and sport. He continued his career until 1998 when the weight of injuries told him it was time to quit.

Following his retirement, he studied acting in Sydney and has since appeared as one of Lex Luthor's henchmen in Superman Returns (2006).

He appeared on the front cover of the August 2007 edition of US gay magazine The Advocate.

Like Dave Kopay and a few others before him, his coming out did not open any floodgates in professional sport and can still be considered a courageous act even in this day and age.

Gareth Thomas

Gareth Thomas born 25 July 1974

Gareth Thomas, born in Sarn near Bridgend, is a Welsh rugby union legend who currently plays at fullback, wing or centre for Crusaders and most recently played as a fullback for Cardiff Blues and Wales. On 26 May 2007, he surpassed Gareth Llewellyn as the most-capped Wales player with his 93rd appearance.

During the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Thomas created history when becoming the first Welshman to win 100 caps in rugby union. In this game he scored a try and prevented another but Wales lost to Fiji and were eliminated from the tournament. He therefore became the first player to lose on his 100th international appearance.

A prolific try scorer at international level, Thomas is listed ninth in the world on the all-time Test try scoring list.

Thomas has been championed as one of the few players who successfully negotiated rugby's transition from an amateur to a professional sport.

In 2005 Thomas was found guilty of assault whilst playing rugby in France and in 2007 was banned for four weeks for misconduct charges. Thomas was also implicated in the circumstances surrounding the departure of Six Nations-winning Wales coach Mike Ruddock and was involved in an explosive televised interview with BBC Scrum V pundit Eddie Butler about the issue.

Thomas suffered a major health scare after the resignation of Welsh coach Mike Ruddock in February 2006 was blamed on player power from senior players. He had received a blow to his neck during a match then later on whilst watching a televised recording of an interview he had given regarding his part in the Mike Ruddock affair, he fell ill and was rushed to hospital with a suspected stroke, which was brought on by a ruptured artery in his neck. It was feared this could lead to retirement but he somewhat miraculously resumed playing at the start of the 2006–07 French rugby season.

From 2002 to 2006, Thomas was married to childhood sweetheart Jemma. The couple married in St Brides Major, near Bridgend, and divorced in 2007; during the relationship, Jemma suffered three miscarriages.

Having struggled with his feelings since he was a teenager and having initially confided in Wales coach Scott Johnson and team mates Stephen Jones and Martin Williams in November 2006, in December 2009 Thomas came out in public that he is gay. This was seen as a surprising move given the taboo nature of homosexuality within team sports. Thomas's public confirmation of his sexuality makes him the first openly gay professional rugby player still playing the game.

That such a powerfully masculine sportman in probably the most masculine and physical of all major team sports should come out as gay is highly significant, as the world of sport - particuarly team sports - is one of the final closets. Gareth Thomas is sure to become a powerful role model for young sportmen - and other young people - questioning their sexuality. That his announcement was generally received positively is a sign of how far society has come in its acceptance of homosexuality; that his coming out can genuinely be regarded as significant is a sign of how far there is still to go. A true hero.

Since his coming out Gareth Thomas has become an increasingly confident spokesman and advocate for LGB rights and campaigned against homophobic bullying, whilst still playing professional rugby.

Jerry Smith

Jerry Smith born 19 July 1943 (d. 1986)

Gerald 'Jerry' Thomas Smith was a professional American football player, playing tight end for the NFL Washington Redskins from 1965-1977.

Playing for Otto Graham and George Allen's Redskins, Smith had a stellar career. He played in the 1973 Super Bowl VII, and Sports Illustrated called him 'an outstanding receiver among tight ends, with the ability to break open for a long gain.' In his career Smith caught 421 passes, including 60 touchdowns, a record for Tight Ends at the time. He was named All-Pro twice and held several NFL records that stood for years.

Smith died of AIDS in October 1986. Although he acknowledged that he had AIDS, he never publicly acknowledged his homosexual activities. Smith's sexuality was disclosed after his death by a friend, confidant, and former team mate, pro NFL football player David Kopay, who had come out of the closet years earlier.

Esera Tuaolo

Esera Tuaolo born 11 July 1968

Esera Tavai Tuaolo, born in Honolulu, Hawaii played professional football in the National Football League for nine years, including participation in the Super Bowl.

He is of Samoan ancestry, and was raised in poverty in a banana farming family. His father died when Esera was ten years of age.

He played for Oregon State University and was selected in the 1991 NFL Draft. Nicknamed 'Mr. Aloha', Tuaolo played nose tackle for several teams in his career, reaching the Super Bowl in 1998 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons. He also played for the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers during his career.

In 2002, having retired from sports, he announced publicly that he was gay and was living with his partner, Mitchell Wherley, and their children - twins, son and daughter Mitchell Jr. and Michelle, who were adopted from Tuaolo's native Samoa. This made him the third former NFL player to come out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons. He has since worked with the NFL to attempt to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

Tuaolo and Wherley separated in July 2007.

In April, 2006, he testified at the State Legislature Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in opposition to an anti-gay-marriage bill.

In 2006, Tuaolo sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games, a quadrennial Olympics-style event. Kopay administered the official's oath during the opening ceremony.

Tuaolo's autobiography, Alone In The Trenches: My Life As A Gay Man In The NFL, was released in Spring, 2006.

Daniel Kowalski

Daniel Kowalski born 2 July 1975

Born in Singapore, Daniel Kowalski is a former Australian middle- and long-distance swimmer specialising in freestyle events. He competed in the Olympic Games in 200m, 400m and 1,500m individual freestyle events and in the 200m freestyle relay. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he was the first man in 92 years to earn medals in all of the 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle events.

Kowalski was part of the world record-setting Australian gold medal 4 x 200m relay team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

In the 2000 summer Olympics he won a gold medal in the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay (Kowalski was replaced in the final by Ian Thorpe but as a swimmer in the qualifying heat, he shares the gold medal).

Kowalski announced his retirement from competitive swimming in May 2002. He studied sports marketing at Bond University, graduating in 2003. He was named as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2007, and also won the 2007 Pier to Pub 1.2km open water swim - the largest open water swim in the world - held annually in Lorne, Australia.

In May 2007 Daniel appeared as one of the celebrity performers on the Australian version of the celebrity reality singing competition It Takes Two.

In April 2010 Kowalski announced that he is gay, joining elite male Australian athletes who have announced that they are gay including retired NSW rugby league player Ian Roberts and Olympic gold-medal winning diver Matthew Mitcham. Kowalski says he was inspired to come out by Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced in December 2009 that he was gay.

'I felt really compelled to do it because it's very tough to live a closeted existence, he said. In a statement issued at the time Kowalski talked of years of struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and his fear of the homophobia of professional sports, citing the few gay sportsmen who have spoken out as inspirational.

Dave Kopay

Dave Kopay born 28 June 1942

Even in 2008, the world of professional sports - especially the major men's team sports - is one of the final closets. David Kopay has achieved fame as a gay icon despite the fact that American Football is a sport only seriously popular in North America.

Kopay was an overachieving player with five National Football League teams from 1964 to 1972. During this time he wrestled with his sexuality and eventually decided to be honest with himself and the public.

Kopay gave an interview in 1975 to the Washington Star in which he declared his homosexuality. He is believed to be the first professional athlete to have taken such a step. In 1977 he wrote his autobiography, The David Kopay Story: An Extraordinary Self-Revelation.

After he retired from the NFL, he was considered a top contender for coaching positions, but was snubbed by professional and college teams because of his sexual orientation. He eventually took over the family business selling and installing floor coverings in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. He is also a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

His biography, written with Perry Dean Young, offers insights into the sexual proclivities of heterosexual football players and their homophobia. In 1986, Kopay also revealed his brief affair with Jerry Smith (1943-1986), who played for the Washington Redskins from 1965-1977 and who died of AIDS without ever having publicly come out of the closet.

Since Kopay, only two additional former NFL Players have come out as gay, Roy Simmons in 1992, and Esera Tuaolo in 2002. Kopay has been credited with inspiring these athletes to be more open about their sexual orientation.

Kopay, who remains active as a speaker, is an important figure in that he exemplifies the fact that gay men can and do compete as athletes. He is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation. He has spoken of his frustration that there was no parade of others who followed his lead. And there never has been.

Nigel Owens

Nigel Owens born 18 June 1971

Nigel Owens, born in Mynyddcerrig, near Llanelli, Wales, is a British international rugby union referee. He is an international and Heineken Cup referee and was the only Welsh referee at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France.

Owens was appointed as an international referee in 2005, and that year officiated his first international between Ireland and Japan in Osaka. Along with Wayne Barnes of England and Marius Jonker of South Africa, Owens made his World Cup debut in Lyon, France on 11 September 2007 for the Argentina vs. Georgia match.

In May 2007, he came out as a homosexual to the public in an interview with Wales on Sunday. He had previously come out to his family and boss via text-message. Although reactions have been generally positive, it was a difficult decision to make. He had even contemplated suicide.

It's such a big taboo to be gay in my line of work, I had to think very hard about it because I didn't want to jeopardise my career. Coming out was very difficult and I tried to live with who I really was for years. I knew I was 'different' from my late teens, but I was just living a lie.

In November 2007. Nigel Owens was named sportsperson of the year at the Stonewall Awards in London.

He is also now a patron of the LGBT Centre of Excellence Wales and of the Wooden Spoon Society rugby charity.
He is also known as one of the presenters on Jonathan, a rugby-themed chat show hosted by former Welsh international Jonathan Davies, broadcast on S4C on the eve of big international matches. He also co-presents the sports-themed chat show Bwrw'r Bar. In November 2008 he released his autobiography in Welsh called Hanner Amser which means Half Time. The English version was launched at the end of October 2009.

Owens lives in Pontyberem, South Wales.

Matthew Mitcham

Matthew Mitcham born 2 March 1988

Matthew Mitcham, OAM is an Australian diver. He is the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10m platform, having received the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. He is the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve at the 1924 Summer Olympics, and one of few openly gay athletes at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Mitcham was born in Brisbane but lives and trains in Sydney.

Mitcham originally competed as a trampoline gymnast. He was discovered by a coach at the Australian Institute of Sport Diving Program, while at the Chandler Aquatic Centre in Brisbane's suburbs, and continued with both diving and trampolining for several years.

As a trampolinist, Mitcham represented Australia at the World Junior Championships in 1999 and 2001, winning the double mini-tramp event. He also competed at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2003, finishing sixth.

From 2002 through 2004, Mitcham was a national junior champion in diving, winning the events in which he competed. Mitcham competed at the 2002 World Junior Diving Championships. In 2004, he won the silver medals in the 1m, 3m synchronised, and 10m platform events at the World Junior Championships. At the 2004 Junior Nationals, he won the 1m, 3m, and 10m and 3m synchro titles. At the 2004 Olympic Trials, he placed strongly but did not qualify for the Olympic team. In 2005, Mitcham won his first senior national title.

In 2006, Mitcham started competing in senior internal diving events and Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he competed in the 1m, 3m, and 10m events. He placed 4th in the 3m and the 3m synchro, and 5th on the 1m and 10m events.

Taking a break from the sport in 2006, he returned in 2007 and started to train under current coach Chava Sobrino at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. In 2008 Mitcham won the 1m, 3m and 10m individual events at the Australian Nationals. Later that year he won the 2008 Diving Grand Prix event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His prospects were looking very promising for the 2008 Olympics.

He publicly came out as gay in 2008 to the Sydney Morning Herald when they were profiling Olympic hopefuls. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he was also featured on the cover of the international gay publication The Advocate in 2008 and 2009.

Mitcham gained media coverage as the first Australian to compete at the Olympic Games as openly gay at the time of his competition, though this was inaccurate, as Mathew Helm, who competed in the same event, was also out before the Olympics began. Other notable gay Australian Olympians include Ji Wallace, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the inaugural trampoline event; however, he came out after the Games.

Mitcham represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 10-metre platform and the 3-metre springboard events. He placed 16th on the 3m springboard and did not qualify for the final. He qualified in second position for the semi-final and final of the 10m platform event. After experiencing mixed success in his first five dives in the final, Mitcham entered the final round of dives in second place, 34 points behind Chinese diver Zhou Lüxin. After Zhou performed his worst dive of the final, Mitcham still needed to achieve an impossibly high score to win the gold. However, his near-perfect final dive drew four perfect 10 scores from judges and achieved the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. He finished with an overall score of 537.95 to defeat Zhou, who finished with an overall score of 533.15, to win Australia's second diving medal of the Games. His win prevented China from claiming a clean-sweep of all diving gold medals at the Olympic Games.

Prior to his 10m platform win, Mitcham was reported to be one of only eleven openly gay athletes competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, out of 11,028 athletes from 204 countries. That he should have come out at such an early stage of his career - the relatively few international sportsmen who have come out have generally done so towards the end of their career or after they have finished competing - makes Matthew Mitcham an inspiration to others growing up gay, and to those competing sportsmen who fear the consquences of opening the closet door and stepping out.

John Amaechi

John Amaechi born 26 November 1970

John Ekwugha Amaechi is a retired English NBA basketball player who currently works as a broadcaster in the United Kingdom. In February 2007, Amaechi publicly announced that he is gay and became the first player associated with the NBA to come out.

The son of a Nigerian father, he was raised in Stockport, England by his English mother. Amaechi moved to the US to play high school basketball at St John's High School in Toledo, Ohio. He began playing college basketball at Vanderbilt but transferred to Penn State where he was a two-time First Team Academic All-American selection.

The 6' 10", centre was signed by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1995. He played 28 games for the Cavaliers during the 1995-1996 season, then played for three years in Europe before signing with the Orlando Magic in 1999. With a solid 1999-2000 season he gained fame for scoring the NBA's first points of the new millennium in 2000. Before speaking publicly about being gay, Amaechi may have been best known for turning down a $17 million contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 to return to play for Orlando for $600,000 per year instead. Amaechi went on to play for the Utah Jazz from 2001 to 2003.

He was traded to the Houston Rockets midway through his final NBA season in exchange for Glen Rice, and though he was an active player, he did not participate in any games for them.

Amaechi came out of retirement to represent England during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, helping the England national basketball team win the bronze medal.

Amaechi owns Animus Consulting, which provides motivational speakers, and is a partner in Animus Development, an executive training program.

Amaechi is also involved with the ABC Foundation in Manchester, which encourages children to become involved in sports and their communities by building youth sports centres throughout the United Kingdom. The first such facility was built in Manchester, not far from Amaechi's childhood home of Stockport.

In February 2007, Amaechi spoke about his homosexuality on ESPN's Outside the Lines programme. He also released a book, Man in the Middle, which discusses his career and life as a closeted professional athlete. Amaechi is the first NBA player to speak publicly about being gay.

Very few male team sports members have come out. Among them are former NFL players Esera Tuaolo, Roy Simmons, and Dave Kopay, former NRL player Ian Roberts and former Major League Baseball players Glenn Burke and Billy Bean.

Months after coming out, Amaechi stated he had 'underestimated America', saying that the 'wrath of a nation' he expected never came about.

John Amaechi was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2011.

Glenn Burke

Glenn Burke born 16 November 1952 (d. 1995)

Glenn Lawrence Burke (Oakland, California) was a Major League Baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics from 1976 to 1979. Burke was the first Major League Baseball player to be out to his team-mates and team owners during his professional career.

Burke was named Northern California's High School Basketball Player of the Year in 1970, and could run the 100 yard dash in 9.7 seconds. He was considered capable of being a professional basketball player, which was his first choice, but his first offer came from Major League Baseball.

He is recognised as the player who invented the high five. In 1977 he ran out onto the field to congratulate his Los Angeles Dodgers team-mate Dusty Baker for hitting a home run in the last game of the regular season. His celebration has since been imitated by athletes and fans in virtually every sport around the world. The second recorded 'high five' came moments later when Baker returned the favour in celebration of Burke's first major league home run.

Burke's association with the Dodgers was a difficult one. According to his autobiography Out at Home, the Los Angeles Dodgers offered to pay for a lavish honeymoon if Burke agreed to get married. Burke refused to participate in the sham. He also angered Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda by befriending the manager's estranged gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr. The Dodgers eventually dealt Burke to the Oakland A's.

Faced with mounting difficulties, Burke eventually quit baseball. He stated in his autobiography that 'prejudice just won out'. He returned for spring training with Oakland in 1980. Billy Martin, the newly hired manager of the Athletics made public statements about not wanting a gay man in his clubhouse. When Burke injured his knee before the season began, the A's sent him to the minors in Utah. Burke then left professional sports for good at age 27.

Burke continued his athletic endeavours after retiring from baseball. He competed in the 1986 Gay Games in basketball, and won medals in the 100 and 220 metre sprints in the first Gay Games in 1982.

Burke's homosexuality became public knowledge in a 1982 article published by Inside Sports magazine. Although he remained active in amateur competition, Burke turned to drugs to fill the void in his life when his career ended. An addiction to cocaine destroyed him both physically and financially. In 1987 his leg and foot were crushed when he was hit by a car in San Francisco. After the accident his life went into physical and financial decline. He was arrested and jailed for drugs and for a time was homeless. His final months were spent with his sister in Oakland. He died of AIDS complications at age 42.

When news of his battle with AIDS became public knowledge in 1994, he received the support of his former team-mates and the Oakland Athletics organisation. In interviews given while he was fighting AIDS, he expressed little in the way of grudges, and only one big regret - that he never had the opportunity to pursue a second professional sports career in basketball.

Since Burke's disclosure of his homosexuality, only one other major-league baseball player, Billy Bean, has come out; and, like Burke, he waited until after his retirement to do so.