A top CrossFit athlete has come out as gay.
Alec Smith is the younger brother of CrossFit Games winner Ben Smith. That said, Alec is an athlete in his own right. Alec has made a name for himself outside of his brother’s shadow by participating in sporting events on his own. Specifically, Alec has competed in the CrossFit games as both an individual and as a part of the team/association CrossFit Krypton.
But now, Alec Smith is making headlines for coming out as gay. Smith shared this announcement on Instagram through a video that he captioned with, “My coming out story. Honestly one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.” He then referenced Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” with the line, “Took a DNA test, turns out I’m gay.”
In the video itself, Smith shared his truth while wearing a white t-shirt with the word “Smile” on it.
“So I’m gay, and I’m at the point at life now where I’m ok with that,” shared the athlete. “I’ve accepted it and I’m happy with who I am.”
The CrossFit personality then breathed a sigh of frustration and paused to collect himself before adding, “It’s been a struggle, it really has. My whole life, I’ve known that I was different. When I was twelve years old, I knew that I was attracted to guys. And I hated myself for being attracted to guys, which led me to hide who I was. I hid who I was in high school, I hid who I was in college. I found myself playing sports. Doing all these things to distract myself from who I really was. It just got to the point where it was unhealthy and I decided to tell somebody. And after I told one of my closest friends, it just led me to telling more and more of my friends. And truly just talking about it helps so much.”
Smith then shared that he hopes to be more open about his personal life with his social media fans. That said, he encouraged his fans to take their time. “When the time is right, the time is right… just focus on yourself and what’s important to you,” he said.
The athlete also noted how people don’t have to label themselves if they don’t want to. Instead, he encouraged them to listen to their feelings when it comes to labels.
“Just be you.”
You can watch the rest of the video and all of Smith’s thoughts down below.
You come out as gay and that should be it in this day and age.
Coming out feels like you are treated like a criminal. The day homosexuality needs not be declared like this I guess we could say society is more egalitarian.