Canadian Olympian Charline Labonte on
Wednesday came out gay.
“I am gay and proudly authentic,”
the 31-year-old Labonte said in an op-ed published at OutSports.com
and LezSpreadTheWord.com.
The former goaltender for the McGill
Martlets ice hockey team won Olympic gold for the fourth straight
time at the Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia earlier this year.
Labonte said playing in Russia, which
recently approved a number of anti-gay laws, put a strain on the
team.
“The new Russian laws, including the
anti-gay 'propaganda' laws, created a malaise that was felt by most
people around me, gay or straight,” she said. “Were we afraid?
Of course! Were we in danger? No idea. We never had the intention
to protest or talk about being gay. We were in Sochi for a single
reason and that was to compete at the highest level of our
capacities. We worked too hard to let any outside distractions
separate us from our ultimate dream.”
Labonte said her teammates knew she was
gay: “Everyone on my team has known I'm gay since I can remember
and I never felt degraded for it. On the contrary, my sport and my
team are the two environments where I feel most comfortable.”
“I am ... proud of who I am and proud
to have the courage to share who I am with you. I'm a four-time
Olympian. I am the daughter of wonderful parents and the sister of a
very special brother. I am friends with people who fascinate me,
support me and without whom I could not live out my dreams. I am a
student and I get my masters from McGill University this fall,” she
added.