Tongan Olympian ‘Amini Fonua, recognised as “openly gay athlete” [1]
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - 12:02. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
‘Amini Fonua, Tonga’s Olympian swimmer and flag-bearer at the London Olympic Games last year is becoming recognised in his sporting success as an “openly gay athlete”.
The 23- year-old Tongan-American was one of the three athletes who represented Tonga at the London Olympics and is Tonga’s first Olympian Swimmer. He lives in Texas and studies at Texas A&M University.
‘Amini was recently publicised in his University Newspaper The Battalion on “being an openly gay athlete at Texas A&M” where he promoted his University and talked about his athletic success as a Olympian swimmer.
According to The Battalion ‘Amini commented “Everyone knows your success as a swimmer isn’t correlated to your sexuality or your sexual orientation.”
“I think the reason people are so fascinated with it in sports is because there is this very hyper-masculine idea attached to being an athlete, especially a professional athlete…but at the end of the day, that’s what they are — they’re professional athletes.”
‘Amini’s sexual orientation however, has also attracted fascination because of his position as a top Tongan athlete at Texas A&M University. Both Tonga and Texas A&M University are well known for religious-conservatism. Texas A&M is apparently ranked as one of the most homophobic Universities in the United States.
Despite this ‘Amini Fonua insists, “I’m kind of sick of having to try to defend my school to other people, because I think it’s a very small minority. Homophobia is at every university, it’s not just A&M. It’s everywhere. It might be a little more prevalent here, but I do think that people will sensationalize how something really is.”
Bronze medallist 'Amini Fonua, (in red), for the Men's 50m Butterfly, Oceania Swimming Championships, May 2012.