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Jan 7 : As curler Bruce Mouat prepares to go for gold at next month's Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, he hopes that by being his authentic self he can help other members of the LGBT community take up sport.
The 31-year-old Scot, who became the first openly gay curler to win a World Men's Curling Championship title in 2023, led the British men's team to silver at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
Last year, his Team Mouat became the first rink to win four Grand Slams in one season, making them the favourites for gold in Cortina.
The team also clinched their second world title in April last year, with Mouat crediting his success in the sport to his decision to come out to his teammates.
"I've been out since I was 18, so quite a long time, but leading into the last Olympics I came out a bit more publicly," Mouat told Reuters in September.
"I wanted to be open about who I was, I didn't want to be asked questions in interviews and have to lie. I wanted to be authentically myself and it really was a freeing moment. I never wanted to hide away.
"From that moment on I just went with it and it's been a great journey. I've played better, ultimately, being able to be myself, my teammates are amazingly supportive."
According to LGBT website Outsports, at least 36 publicly out athletes competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics, including 11 men, with Mouat and French figure skater Guillaume Cizeron winning medals.
The first Games to feature publicly gay male Winter Olympians was the 2018 edition in Pyeongchang, where Canadian figure skater Eric Radford became the first openly gay male Winter Olympics champion.
Outsports said there had been no openly gay male Winter Olympians four years earlier at the Sochi Games in Russia, which had just enacted restrictions on the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relations" amid a broader crackdown on LGBT rights.
SHARING HIS JOURNEY
Mouat, who shared an embrace with his partner Craig Kyle on the ice after winning the world curling title last year, said he wanted to demonstrate that sport can help people find supportive communities.
"Sharing my journey on social media platforms and showing that I have a loving partner who's extremely supportive of me, and to be able to go and compete and win world championships and for him to be there and then to run down onto the ice and for us to embrace," he added.
"Just to put that on a bit of a different platform is hopefully going to motivate other people in the community. It doesn't have to be elite sport, they can just get into sport. I just want to prove that it's a safe space for people."
Mouat also highlighted the steps curling had taken to become more inclusive.
"The last Grand Slam we were at, there was a pride night with drag queens performing after the event which was amazing to see," he said.
"There were lots of people there to support, allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community. I love my sport to bits."
