Guillaume Cizeron, Olympic Skater Comes Out, Shows Boyfriend

Following an Instagram post, Olympic medal-winning ice dancer, Guillaume Cizeron has come out publicly as gay. Though the performer, who won a silver medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics never considered himself in the closet prior, haven spoken openly to family and his friends about his sexuality, he acknowledges that a new interview in the French-language magazine Tetu is his first time speaking publicly.

"It was quite funny how people reacted to this photo," Cizeron told Tetu according to OutSports -- the interview is behind a paywall and in French. "I would not consider myself in the closet before posting this [photo], so I don't really consider it coming out.

"Even though I have never spoken publicly about my sexual orientation, I am one of those who think that it is not something that [people] should have to do. Straight people don't come out. ... I still hesitated a bit before publishing. Because I'm not in the habit of revealing really intimate things. I don't know what got into me, I said to myself, 'What do I have to lose?'"

The interview was a result of an Instagram post Cizeron made on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia earlier this month. The photo depicts himself and his boyfriend and received an overwhelmingly positive reception from followers.

"I told myself that by living in Montreal, one of the cities where we feel the most free as a person from the LGBT community, we tend to forget how this is not the case everywhere in Canada and in other countries, even in France," Cizeron said according to Towleroad. "So exposing oneself serves the cause. Over the past few months, I have talked about it with many people who surround me and are part of the community, some of whom are activists, and who have told me several times how far it could have had an impact in this cause. What held me [back] for a moment was the fact that I always considered that we shouldn't have to come out. I was quite surprised that people made so many positive comments, it made me happy. Despite everything, there were 200 or 300 people who stopped following me at that time, out of 84,000. I have the impression that gay sportsmen are still known to be gay sportsmen. I don't want to be the gay skater, but the medalist skater. But I think there is still a need to fight so that matters evolve in this direction."

In addition to his Olympic medal, Cizeron is a well-decorated world champion as an ice dancer.

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