Out Gay Hockey Player Davis Atkin Selected In Australia’s Under-21 Team
Image: Davis Atkin. Image: Instagram
Australia’s out gay hockey player Davis Atkin has been named to the Burras – the national men’s under-21 squad. Canberra-based Western Districts player Atkin (21) is currently Australia’s only out gay hockey player at the national level.
Atkin hopes to one day play for the Kookaburras – Australia’s national men’s hockey team, but his immediate goal is the Australian Under-21 Championships in July and to make it to squad for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup to be held in November in Malaysia.
Atkins is one of the few young out gay sportspersons playing at the national level in Australia, along with out gay Australian footballer Josh Cavallo, who came out last year.
A Trailblazer
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Atkin, who grew up playing soccer but took up hockey when he was 14, told The Canberra Times that he wanted to be a “trailblazer” and “someone that people can look up to”.
Atkin’s coming out journey was not smooth or on his own terms. According to OutSports, the young player’s psychologist accidentally outed him to his coach. However, since then Atkins has taken ownership of the narrative.
“2021 really was the craziest year of my life. Reflecting back, it was probably the worst year I have experienced so far mentally,” Atkin revealed in an Instagram post recently.
“The start of the year I was involved in an incident that changed my life outside of Instagram. I was in a pretty bad place for the majority of the year and struggled to pull myself out. It may not have seemed that way on here, but maybe one day I will share this with you all.”
‘Excited To See What The Year Holds’
Atkin said things were slowly turning for the better. “Towards the end of 2021 and coming into this year, I’m still struggling a little bit, but am a lot better off than this time last year.”
Atkin told his 12,000 followers on Instagram that one of the ways he dealt with the tough times was sharing his love for skincare and makeup.
“I changed the direction of my Instagram towards a passion that better suits me now which is a mix of skincare and makeup. I still love to create different makeup looks and share it with you all, but expanding my content was something I really needed to do for myself and the direction I’m wanting to take this page,” said Atkin.
“I hope you have all enjoyed my content so far. My life is still very hectic at this point, but I am very excited to see what this year holds for us all,” added Atkin.
Atkin was last year named one of Hockey ACT’s Pride Ambassadors and had said that it was “important for hockey players that identify as LGBTQI to have examples or see someone like them who also plays Hockey. Hockey should always be a comfortable and safe space to be yourself and as an ally I would like to promote this and also be available to talk or give advice.”
