Finnish Olympian Swimmer Ari-Pekka Liukkonen Comes Out As Gay

Feb 2, 2014

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Finnish Olympic swimmer Ari-Pekka Liukkonen has come out of the closet as a gay man, reportsÂ YLE.

The winner of the bronze medal in the 4x50m mixed freestyle relay at the 2012 European Championships, Liukkonen said he chose to publicly reveal his own sexuality in hopes of raising awareness of the antigay legislation passed in Russia â€“ the host county of the 2014 Winter Games.

â€œI wanted to start a broader discussion in connection with Sochi, because itâ€™s sad that the legislation in Russia restricts the human rights of young people and others,â€ Liukkonen told Yle, noting that he hoped the sports world would soon no longer â€œfind homosexuality to be any kind of news.â€

Read the entire interview here on YLE

Ari-Pekka Liukkonen

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2 responses to “Finnish Olympian Swimmer Ari-Pekka Liukkonen Comes Out As Gay”

Annie Oakley

February 3, 2014

Except that he has as little input / relevance into Sochi or Russia as I do. I have had my glass of wine whisked away from me in a restaurant in Helsinki at 9pm due to laws that aimed to protect Finnish youth. I did not think to start a campaign against Finland ( I was visiting for a track meet ) .

To visit other nations I have had to have HIV testing , character assessments , monitoring & in India , full body searches. I was even asked if I as a communist .

Such is life. Get over a lot of things if you want to travel. No nation on leaving ever asked me what laws of theirs I would like changed.

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