Figure skater Kevin Aymoz, who competes in the Winter Olympics, has had to deal with insults since he was very young. The 28-year-old homosexual athlete sometimes faces extremely violent comments…
Kevin Aymoz, who represents France in figure skating in the men’s individual category at the Winter Olympics, put on his first skates at just 3 years old. But the athlete from Isère unfortunately suffered numerous and violent insults from a very young age…
Kevin Aymoz, insulted: “It was quite hard…”
“I learned to skate before I walked“, joked the 28-year-old athlete who stands out with his small height of 1.60 m, interviewed some time ago by drag queen Tabi Stone for the media Stubborn. But although he was able to pursue his passion all his life, he was confronted with sometimes violent insults, from his earliest childhood, when people learned that he was taking skating lessons. “It was quite hard when I was little because, sorry for the terms, but from a very young age I heard: ‘You’re a b***h’“, he said.
But the children who figure skated with him were hardly more tender. “It was quite difficult because there was a ‘straight spirit’ that set in with all these other boys who said: ‘It’s not a f***ing sport, it’s not a fag sport’. To reduce all LGBT people to something fragile and not powerful, who can’t perform,” explained Kevin Aymoz, who has always affirmed his homosexuality.
Kevin Aymoz, faced with violence: “I had a lot of anger inside me”
Growing up, at certain times, Kevin Aymoz felt the need to play a role. A real pressure encouraging him to project a more virile image in order to be perceived as more “masculine” and not “withdraw from the whole group“. “I had a lot of anger inside me because I couldn’t express myself like the person I was, we had to force ourselves to be someone solid, as they say ‘a good man’“, confided the one who does not reveal whether he is currently in a relationship or not.
Even today, the seven-time French champion is regularly confronted with homophobic insults and even death threats. “Especially on the networks, it was very violent. For my first victory at the Grand Prix, last November, the Americans were quite tough,” he explained before quoting appalling comments aimed at him : “There were some who told me that those who shot Charlie Kirk had missed an opportunity to shoot me in public, this kind of violence that we shouldn’t read about and that we receive, it’s quite harsh. But face to face, never. I’m very lucky.”
