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26-year-old judoka Timo Cavelius has battled many adversaries in his life, including heteronormativity in athletics. With his recent victory at the German National Championships, Cavelius has become his country’s first openly gay judo champion.
The young fighter has had a rapid rise to his current height, having already fought in dozens of competitions including grand slams, grands prix and continental cups. After years climbing the tatamis, he has reached the top.
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The athlete came out publicly in 2020, but said he has been open with friends and family since he was a teenager with little to no incident.
“In fact, a well-known German tabloid wanted to do a big story about my sexuality,” he had said in an interview in 2020, “but since I can’t tell a sad or shocking story about my coming out, they dropped the subject.”
However, coming out of the closet in the world of judo was not so easy. Although there are a good handful of gay professional wrestlers (Anthony Bowens in wrestling, Jack Woolley in taekwondo, Orlando Cruz in boxing, etc.), traditional masculinity and the heteronormative ethos still often prevail.
“In sport, the subject was taboo for me for a long time,” Cavelius explained. “Not only because I had repeatedly read in the media horror stories about athletes coming out of the closet. In my team we were all pubescents who still wanted to prove their masculinity. Judo is also a very physical sport, after all you you throw each other down and you’re incredibly close fighting on the ground. I was afraid that others would stop taking me seriously.”
To everyone’s relief, the reception was warm.
“Aside from the classic ‘How are you doing?’ questions, it was all very well for everyone,” he said.
“I think a lot of people are scared by coming out. The moment I took my destiny into my own hands, nothing could happen to me. My credo is very clear: today there is no place for homophobia, not even in the professional sport”.
Now, with a national championship under his belt and the 2024 Olympics in his sights, this fighter is definitely bringing progress to the mat.
He has also kept Instagram up to date on his personal progress:
“Shawn Michaels was the catalyst for me realizing I was gay as f*ck.”