Out Gay Aussie Gymnast Heath Thorpe Wins The Floor, Heads To World Championships

Out gay Australian gymnast Heath Thorpe is heading to the 2023 World Championship in Antwerp, Belgium, later this year, before aiming for a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Twenty-two-year-old Thorpe and his teammates beat Team New Zealand to win the Oceania Continental Championships last week. Thorpe was placed first in the floor event and second in the high bar competition. 

Team Australia, comprising Thorpe, James Hardy, Clay Mason Stephens, Mitchell Morgans and David Tanner, will head to Antwerp in October 2023. Team Australia will look to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, with Thorpe having an opportunity to make it to the individual events. 

“We did it!  Team AUS are your 2023 Oceania Champions and with that have secured a ticket to Worlds!  It’s hard to describe how proud I am of each of these boys. It was a nail-biter but the grit, spirit and fight we showed tonight got us across the line,” Thorpe posted on Twitter after the win. 

Coming Out

Thorpe came out when he was 18 and is one of the few out gay active male gymnasts. 

A Calvin Klein model and a TikToker, Thorpe has previously spoken about growing up with a lack of queer role models in the world of gymnastics. 

“When I was younger, there were no queer gymnasts competing on the international level,” Thorpe said in an interview with Gymnastics magazine. “So when I was coming to terms with my identity, I now realize how significant it could’ve been if there were one or even two people at the top level being themselves.”

Earlier this year, Thorpe represented the Australian Gymnastics community at the Thrive with Pride Program. 

Fighting Stereotypes

Thorpe told SBS News that he was still one of the few out gay gymnasts in Australia and at the international level. 

“It has been an interesting pathway … I know when I was growing up that I was met with a lot of comments about gymnastics being for girls, or being for gay people,” he told SBS News. 

“For me to realise my identity was a bit of a struggle because I had almost not wanted to perpetuate a stereotype that I had been told my whole life. So that was an internal struggle in itself.