Gay swimmer Dan Jervis representing Team GB at Paris 2024 Olympics
Dan Jervis came out as gay in 2022. (Getty)
Swimmer Dan Jervis will be competing for Team GB at the Paris Olympics this summer after qualifying at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in April.
In an interview after he won the 1500m freestyle to secure a place on the team, he said: “I was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been. If I’m honest, this right now is probably the best moment of my swimming career. I’m very fortunate, I’ve got an amazing support network, I’ve got my family, my friends, I’ve got my partner here.”
“I just want to enjoy [competing in Paris] and I swim well when I enjoy it,” he added.
Jervis, who finished outside the medal positions at the Tokyo Games three years ago, is excited to be going to Paris being open about his sexuality, wishing that he had come out earlier.
In an interview for Team GB’s website during Pride month, he said: “It’s a world stage and so many people are watching you, so to be able to have gone to that Olympic Games and have stood on that block with everyone watching back home knowing that I was truly being myself, I can’t get that back for Tokyo but I’ll now be able to have that for Paris.
“Now, when I go to Paris, I’m going to love the fact that being gay will be a big part of it.”
Jervis came out as gay in an interview with the BBC in 2022. He said his decision stemmed from having “years ahead” of him in swimming and that he wanted to be himself while still competing.
The Welshman is one of only three swimmers competing in Paris who are openly gay.
He knew he was different from a young age and was bullied at school for being gay. “I didn’t want to prove them right but I knew deep down I was,” he told Attitude magazine.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jervis came out to his best friend in 2018 but the 2020 lockdown and being chosen to compete in the Commonwealth Games in 2022 – which he dropped out of because of complications of COVID-19 – spurred him to be honest with the public.
“I thought: ‘I can’t live this life pretending to be someone I’m not’. I knew I wasn’t going to change. I was still going to be exactly the same Dan. I couldn’t keep hiding this thing about me. I needed to tell someone,” he said.
Jervis is grateful for the reaction he has had from the LGBT community. “They have helped me up. The support from my church back home, my family, and my friends… all my life, I thought: ‘When I come out, my life is going to completely change for the worse’. That hasn’t happened,” he added.
Although Jervis is in a relationship, with his partner cheering him on at the swimming championships earlier this year, he has kept quiet about the man’s identity.
