Olympic Swimmer Ari, Says Now I can Be Myself After Coming Out
Finnish swimmer Ari-Pekka Liukkonen has revealed publicly that he’s gay. He’s the first actively-competing Olympic sportsman from Finland to do so.
The 24-year-old tells Finland’s Yle that he had difficultly coming to terms with his sexuality when he was younger.
“Acceptance hasn’t necessarily been easy, but it hasn’t been horribly difficult either. This has been a long, slow process for me, but now I’m there,” he explains, adding that his family supports him.
“Homosexuality is the same kind of characteristic as whether a person has blue or brown eyes, or whether they are left- or right-handed,” he concludes.
So why did he come out now? “I wanted to start a broader discussion in connection with Sochi, because it’s sad that the legislation in Russia restricts the human rights of young people and others,” he explains.
“I hope that in Finland we can get to the stage where we don’t need to talk about this anymore as soon as possible.”
Liukkonen competed at the 2012 Olympics in London and is aiming to compete at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.
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