Australian athlete owns homophobic trolls by passionately kissing boyfriend after Olympic loss
Campbell Harrison is an openly gay athlete from Australia. (Getty)
Australian climber Campbell Harrison kissed his boyfriend in open defiance of homophobic trolls after failing to qualify for the final of the men’s boulder and lead competition.
Harrison finished tied for 19th with a score of 9.4, meaning he would not advance into the final as only the top eight from each semi-final were allowed to move forward.
“Qualifying was so hard and getting through everything to be here was really tough. It was just not my day,” Harrison said following his defeat.
“It’s pretty crazy. This morning, when I woke up, I was kind of emotional. I thought ‘oh, I guess I’m an Olympian now’. So that’s kind of wild. At the end of the day, that was the big goal,” he continued.
After it was announced that he had failed to qualify, Harrison kissed his boyfriend Justin across the barriers in Paris.
It was an especially significant kiss, given the fact the Olympian has faced intense homophobic abuse online since he qualified to compete in the Olympic Games back in November.
Harrison kissed his boyfriend publicly back then too, but there were several vile comments directed at the couple after the Olympics social media accounts shared a photo of them.
The negative comments led to the official Olympics Instagram account putting out a statement urging people to keep the “community positive”.
“Please ensure your comments are respectful and avoid any language that could be [deemed] offensive or harmful to others. We reserve the right to remove comments that do not adhere to this guideline.”
At the time, Harrison thanked fans for their supportive messages and spoke out about being a queer athlete: “We often tell ourselves that society as a whole is becoming more progressive, or that things are ‘getting better’. But the reality is… there’s a reason why you see so few out, queer athletes in sport. And that’s because we’re still not safe here.. yet. Pride matters. Representation matters.”
“It’s homophobes and bigots that should feel unwelcome in sport. Not me. Not Justin. Not queer people just trying to live our lives without having to lie about and hide who we are,” Harrison added.
You can read all of our Paris Olympics 2024 coverage here.
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