A Splash of Love

If you have been anywhere near the internet today, you will not need me to tell you what all the fuss is about...

Team GB Medallist, Tom Daley, has announced that he is in a relationship. A relationship with a man.

Almost as soon as Daley had tweeted the link to his video announcement, choruses of  'I told you so!' and 'I knew it!' could be heard from miles around. Despite the fact that he never once labelled himself within the video, it has been decided: Tom Daley is gay.

Firstly it should be recognised that he has not, come out as gay. He has come out with the news that he has fallen for someone and that someone just so happens to be male. He has admitted he still fancies girls, which would make him Bisexual and bisexuality is not something that should be shrugged off as 'not a thing'. It should be accepted just the same way being singularly attracted to girls or singularly attracted to guys is.

Tom's confession, although not really that much of a big deal (I mean, surely he is allowed to love whoever the hell he wants, right?) has left many people wondering why he even needed to bring it up anyway. It is 2013 and this is modern Britain. The fact that one of UKs most beloved and cherished sports stars is in a gay relationship should have nothing to do with how we view him as a human being. It should not still be 'a thing' when a person 'comes out'. It saddens me that we still live in a world a person is distinguished by who they fall in love with.

Daley's actions today were, without a doubt, brave... and this is someone who throws themselves (gracefully) head first into a pit of water from 10m up. Despite the fact that I am straight and would never claim to fully understand the fear a person must feel in the years, months, weeks and days leading up to telling the people around them that they are gay, I will say this; admitting you have fallen for someone is TERRIFYING.

The first time I was really honest about my feeling towards my boyfriend, it made me feel almost sick. Its just not the kind of thing you can take back. Once you admit to falling for or loving someone, once you put that out there into the universe, you cannot have it back. I cannot imagine what it must feel like then, to face the fact that you are in love alongside the fact that there are going to be people condemning you for having those feelings at all. Even Daley admitted that, upon telling his wider family, it created a mixed reaction.

It is wonderful, that in a society that still sees such high levels of homophobic bullying, a young, talented star has been brave enough to step forward and say 'This is who I am'. We need more people like Daley to step up and say 'it's ok to fall for someone who makes you feel happy and safe, even if they are the same sex as you', so that young people all over the world have role models they can look up too. Being a teenager is hard enough without limitations being put on who we are expected to fall in love with.
Fact of the matter is, Daley's news in no way changes the fact that he is a credit to our nation as a sports personality nor it does not affect his ability to leap and flip through the air into diving pools and countless medals in sporting events around the world. We should still want him to get to Rio 2016 and bring back medals. As a nation we should support him as an athlete because that is what he works so God damn hard for.

I hope you're relationship is a happy one, Tom. Falling in love is such a special and momentous thing, and I for one, am happy to support love in a world that appears so filled with hate.

- xo

If you haven't seen his video, check it out here.

The Greatest City For The Greatest Show On Earth!

It has been an emotional and incredible first five days of the London 2012 Olympic Games and I would mostly like to start by saying that I, Hayley Olimba Devlin, was wrong.

The Games have been the greatest, not the worst, thing to happen to our city and I have absolutely never been so proud to say that I am British and that London is my city.

From the remarkable Danny Boyle directed Open Ceremony, to the beautiful Olympic Beacon and the INCREDIBLE transformation of the East End everything about London 2012 shines. I gush every time I see a foreigner post a picture of the games online and feel inspired by the fact that billions of eyes are watching my city in awe as the Olympic and Paralympic games go on. Everyone in the world should experience this feeling.

I have gone from game-hater to game-lover in 0.3 seconds flat, clocked up lots of interesting Sports fact that may or may not come in useful once the pub quiz season restarts and have managed to add at least four new names to my 'He's Fathering My Children List'. Brilliant.

The pride that runs through me every time we win a medal is starting get ridiculous. Helen and Heather's first Team GB gold was phenomenal, then there's Wiggo beating Sir Steve Redgrave's Olympic title and our brilliant Male Gymnastic team who defied all the odds winning our first male gymnastic medal in a century are merely a few of the our Olympic achievements that made my heart swell. Tom Daley's individual isn't for another 10 days and I'm already wetting myself in excitement!*

Plus, it's not even just Team GB I feel proud and captured by though, oh no. It's all the athletes across all the nations, form the sneaky Kazakhstan cyclist who won the road race in the last few seconds, to the AMAZING 15 year old Lithuanian female who won the swimming and to Micheal Phelps and his achievement of officially being the greatest athlete of all time.

I just can't help it, I've caught Olympic Fever and it's raging through me with no signs of stopping!!

COME ON TEAM GB!


*Alright, so I'm not actually wetting myself.