Tom Daley, a British diver, said he hoped his gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics will serve as a beacon for the LGBTQ community, demonstrating that "you can do anything."
In the men's synchronised 10-meter platform event, Daley and his diving partner, Matty Lee, swept to victory, with the British diver sobbing tears of delight on the podium. Daly is competing in his fourth Olympics and has never won a gold medal.
"I am quite delighted to be a gay man who is also an Olympic champion," he remarked. "And that gives me a lot of confidence because when I was younger, I felt I'd never be anything or achieve anything because of who I was, and being an Olympic champion now just proves that you can achieve anything."
Daley, 27, said he was pleased to see a record-breaking number of out gay and lesbian athletes competing in this year's Olympic Games.
He stated he "always felt like the one who was alone and different and didn't fit in" when he first came out in December 2013.
"There was always going to be something about me that was never going to be as good as what society expected," he stated.
Now, he explained, "I hope that any young LGBT person will understand that they are not alone, no matter how isolated they may feel right now. That you can accomplish anything, and that there are many members of your chosen family waiting to help you."
Daley made the remarks while standing between athletes from China and Russia, two nations that do not allow same-sex marriage.
It's unclear if his remarks were televised in either of those countries. However, both Chinese and Russian media were present at the Games.
According to the sports news website Outsports, more than 160 members of the LGBTQ community were slated to compete in the Summer Games.
With about 34 competitors from the United States competing in the Tokyo Olympics, the number is roughly quadruple that of the 56 athletes that competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
