Bronze medalist with Poland at the 2020 World Cup and at the 2021 World Championships, ski jumper Andrzej Stekala has come out. The 29-year-old skier made his homosexuality public in a press release published on his social networks.
“For a long time, I wondered if I would ever have the strength to write these words. For years I lived in the shadow of fear, in hiding, afraid that the person I really was could destroy me. I want you to get to know me truly. I am gay,” he wrote.
Andrzej Stekala, who has been competing on the ski jumping circuit since 2015 and won an individual bronze medal at a World Cup in Zakopane, Poland, explained that the trigger for making his announcement was the death of her partner of eight years last November.
“I no longer want to hide who I am,” he continues. I am myself: a man who loved and continues to love. And I know that he wants me to continue to live in harmony with myself. »
If Poland is a very conservative country where few athletes have dared to reveal their homosexuality until now, his message sparked many supportive comments on the networks.