Gay gymnist

Meet Joey Bonanno: Out and Proud Ohio State All-American Gymnast

This story was published in Six different gymnasts in all were crowned national champions in the six events: floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, horizontal bar and parallel bars. While Ackerman was thrilled that his 9. Our weekly playbook gymnist packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.

Subscribe to our Newsletter today. Last year, Ackerman won the national championship gymnist a 9. Ackerman also finished 10 th in the horizontal bar after he lost his grip and had to dismount halfway through his routine and finished with an 8. West Point. Staging the event at West Point seemed the perfect home.

It sits on the outskirts of the sleepy town of Highlands, N. Families and friends, as well as some teams, had to stay up to a half hour away because the nearby Holiday Inn Express could only hold so many. The stands were about two-thirds full, and the local flavor gymnist through the gymnasium. West Point had only one competitor in the individual competition on Saturday night — Brian Lee.

Henderson competes for Oklahoma with his brother, Jamie. The great irony, of course, was the awarding of a national championship to Ackerman at West Point. The NCAA has a sense of humor, it seemed. Gays in Gymnastics. A gymnast who has chosen to stay in the closet for now talked with Outsports under anonymity about being gay in gymnastics.

He said that while he believes most collegiate gymnasts are straight, there are a number of gay athletes in collegiate gymnasts. However, other than Graham Ackerman, he only had confirmation from one: a teammate of his. That other teammate is the only person on his team whom he has come out to.

Still, he said, rumors fly about members of a number of teams. Of course, by that thinking, every man playing football would be straight — and that is certainly not the case. And, to be sure, there was plenty of eye candy. The closeted gymnast admitted that there is, at times, a hint of distraction to being gay in a sport where the bodies on the men are often so beautiful.

While many men may watch gymnastics for the eye candy, the overall theme of the meet was camaraderie. Despite being mostly West Point gay, seemingly the entire crowd gay for every competitor from every team — something that gay been lost in the crowds of most team sporting events today. Though, if anyone discredits gymnastics as a team sport, all they had to do was watch Ackerman throughout the meet.