“Like a Weight Has Lifted”: Nick Albiero on Coming Out
A year ago, Nick Albiero agonized over how to share the message on social media that had long been on his mind.
His family and most of his close friends – “everybody I knew and cared about,” he said – knew by that point that he was gay. They greeted his news with love, support and acceptance. But no longer hiding that facet of his identity from the wider world was a process the University of Louisville graduate felt he needed to do.
Despite the nerves of his public coming out, the 25-year-old NCAA champion got a generally positive response. And his ability to live more authentically is something he hopes will benefit him in and out of the water on the road to the Paris Olympics.
“It took me a while to feel free being myself,” Albiero said this week in an interview with Team USA.
One of the factors that helped was the fact that he didn’t feel like such a trailblazer. While LGBTQ+ representation is lacking in swimming overall, he cited the example of Erica Sullivan making the Olympics in 2021 as the first out swimmer on a U.S. Olympic swim team as easing the transition. “She broke the stigma that when you come out you don’t perform as well in the pool,” Albiero said, of the silver medalist in the 1,500 free in Tokyo and a standout at the University of Texas. (The two were teammates at World Juniors in 2017.)
Albiero said his coming out has lessened pressure on him in many regards. (He echoes many of the points that Markus Thormeyer, a two-time Canadian Olympian, shared about how his decision to come out affected his performance.)
“I feel less pressure,” Albiero said, “because I know a whole community supports me regardless of the outcome in the pool. Now I represent more than my team; I represent a community. And I have more people in my corner than ever before.”
Good for you! Happy to hear. Everyone ought to be able to be who they really are.
There have been gay masters swim teams since the 80s. It is too bad that the mainstream swimming community has taken so long to be an open and inclusive sport, and apparently still needs to improve itself so that everyone feels welcome and included. Also, what is a “generally positive” response?
I’ll never understand why anyone cares about someone has sex with or attracted to. How is this news?