Olympics

British diver Tom Daley says sports has ‘a lot further to go’ on LGBTQ acceptance

By Simon Denyer
Yesterday at 7:14 a.m. EDT

TOKYO — British diver Tom Daley says he is proud to be able to inspire other people as an openly gay athlete, but he is quick to add that global sports still has a long way to go to achieve acceptance and embrace diversity.

At least 182 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing at the Games, according to outsports.com, and Daley said there had been progress since he first competed at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 at 14.

“Of course it’s come a long way, but there’s still a lot further to go,” he said after winning bronze in Saturday’s individual 10-meter platform men’s final. “I mean, there are 10 countries that are competing at these Olympic Games where being LGBT is punishable by death.”

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In 2013, Daley first announced on his YouTube channel that he was in a relationship with a man. He married American screenwriter, film director and producer Dustin Lance Black in 2017, and the pair had a son by a surrogate the following year.

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By Simon Denyer
Simon Denyer is The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tokyo, covering Japan and the Koreas. He previously worked as The Post's bureau chief in Beijing and New Delhi; as a Reuters bureau chief in Washington, New Delhi and Islamabad; and a Reuters correspondent in Nairobi, New York and London. Twitter https://twitter.com/simondenyer