GAY FOR GOLD 🏳️‍🌈

Talk'OH! Tuesday

Written by Glenn Javier

Tom Daley bagged the coveted gold medal for Great Britain on Monday, He and his diving partner, Matty Lee, won first place on the synchronized 10-meter platform dive, and this triumph was particularly significant for Daley because this is his second Olympics as an openly gay man.

Tom Daley (left) and Matty Lee pose after winning the gold medal for the men's synchronized 10m platform diving event during Tokyo 2020. | Photo by: Odd Andersen/AFP

Tom is currently a television personality and YouTube vlogger. Daley rose to stardom in Great Britain after he competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he was just 14 years old dubbed as the cute, fit and flexible British diver. He specializes in the 10-metre platform event and is a double World champion in the event. In 2016, he won a second Olympic bronze in the men's synchronized 10-metre platform, with Daniel Goodfellow.

A year after, he won World silver with Grace Reid in the mixed 3-metre springboard synchronized event. And now, Tom has his Olympic gold medal! As a beloved sporting figure in the United Kingdom, this will surely be a momentous occasion for the United Kingdom!

Tom came out in late 2013 by posting a YouTube video saying he had fallen in love, and it just so happened to be with a guy. A few years later, released another one. This time it was to tell everyone that he was in a relationship with a man who turned out to be American screenwriter, director, and producer Dustin Lance Black. They got married in 2017.

"I feel incredibly proud to say that I’m a gay man and also an Olympic champion..."

said Daley via the Olympic News Service after his win with Lee.

Daley said the award was notably important to him because he wanted his son to see him compete, even if he could only see him on the TV screen.

Here's a photo of their winning performance:

Photo by Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images

According to Outsports, there are 168 LGBTQ+ athletes competing at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. This is thrice the then-record total of the 2016 Olympics - 56.

Tokyo 2020 medal ranks are as follows:

Source: USA Today / TOCOG