The Walk-In Closet: Homsexuality in Sports

Competing this year in Bejing are 10,708 athletes. Only 10 are openly gay and only one of them, Matthew Mitcham, is male.

Statistically, the percentage given in the Western world amongst a random sample is between 3 and 10%, with most people favoring a figure of around 5% or one in 20.

10 of 10,708 is clearly much lower than any of these. It works out at around 0.09%, a far lower percentage than any serious study would suggest. Most figures would predict the number of gay athletes to be above 500, so why is it only 10? Likewise, why has only one top flight English football player, Justin Fashanu, come out as gay?

There are a number of theories, some suggesting that homosexuality is less prevalent amongst top-class athletes than other professions, but most believe that athletes would prefer not to “come out”.

Particularly in team sports, gay athletes fear that the interaction between themselves and other competitors would be weakened if he/she was openly gay. For example, Graeme le Saux, a former Chelsea and England footballer who was not gay, but was widely believed to be, felt that he was treated differently by team-mates and opponents as a result of his alleged homosexuality.

Read the rest at bleacherreport.com.