Track Gay Star Trey Cunningham Catches Another Big Win
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| Trey Cunningham of the United States reacts after winning in the men's 110-meters hurdles during the Herculis EBS, part of the 2025 Diamond League at Stade Louis II on July 11, 2025, in Monaco. | Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images |
The World Athletics Championships are a little more than two months away, and the in-form Trey Cunningham just took another significant step towards his target.
The out gay athlete from Winfield, Ala., remains on course to be crowned 110-meter hurdles king in Tokyo on Sept. 16 at the World Athletics Championships.
Cunningham chalked up his second consecutive Diamond League win on Friday in Monaco over the short distance in a time of 13.09 seconds. That’s just 0.09 seconds off his personal best, a time he’s already matched twice so far this season.
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He demonstrated his ability to concentrate too, producing his outstanding performance after a false start that saw Wilheim Belocian of France disqualified.
Powering through a headwind, Cunningham was 0.05 seconds quicker than second-placed Cordell Tinch, with another American, Ja’Kobe Tharp, finishing third for a 1-2-3 USA sweep.
After the race, Cunningham was asked by FloTrack about his thoughts in the aftermath of a false start incident.
“It p*sses me off!” he replied. “It’s the easiest thing in track and field to sit in the blocks. Your 0.01 is not going to beat me!”
His impressive consistency bodes well for the ultimate challenge that awaits in the Japanese capital, which will come only a year after he failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.
He followed up his disappointment of finishing only ninth at the U.S. trials by coming out publicly as gayvia an article in the New York Times.
“The only thing that matters is whether you’re running fast today or not,” he said in that interview. He demonstrated his resolve the very next day by winning the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix.
This season, he laid down a marker in April by beating the Olympic champion, Grant Holloway, at a meet in Gainesville, Fla.
Two weeks later, in Miami, he banked $100,000 by winning in a time of 13.00s at an event in the Grand Slam Track series, whose official account asked if he was “track’s new lover boy.”
In Pride Month, he took another Grand Slam Track victory, in Philadelphia, before matching his 110-meter hurdles PB once more at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
He recently told Cero Magazine that he attributes his form, in part, to his authenticity, saying: “My coach was really big on this, like, ‘You have to be totally confident in yourself and whatever that means to you on that track.’”
The unusual fashion shoot accompanying the feature went down a storm too. “This is awesome,” commented another out gay U.S. track star, Nico Young, on Instagram.
There are five more Diamond League races to come this season before the focus turns to Tokyo. Cunningham won’t compete in them all as he aims to peak at the right time, to upgrade on the silver medal he collected at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest three years ago.
Most important of all, he’s clearly having a lot of fun trying to make that happen. Having explained in the Cero interview that it took him “a while to be OK with being gay,” now he goes into every race with a smile on his face.
“That’s really helped me, trying to find the fun in everything, every single day.”
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