STRAIGHT MATE /
GOLD ON THE WIND
AT 25, JASON WATERHOUSE HAS ALREADY SEEN THE WORLD AND BECOME AN OLYMPIC-QUALIFYING SAILOR. HE TELLS MATTHEW MYERS ABOUT FINDING INSPIRATION IN IAN THORPE, WEARING A HARNESS, AND THAT TIME HE WENT TO A GAY BAR IN DENMARK!
DNA: Congratulations on making the Olympic team. Are there any Olympic athletes who particularly inspire you? Jason Waterhouse: Ian Thorpe is really special for me. I was only nine when the Olympics were in Sydney and I’d just started getting involved and watching a lot of sport. He was a great Aussie athlete, and I really think he woke up a lot of Australians to get behind all our athletes. To see him compete and be successful under so much pressure was amazing. He’ll go down in history as a legend. What did you think of his coming out? That really interested me, to be honest. I was 38 DNA
overseas when it happened and I thought it was great that he could be a role model to so many people. To come out was inspirational to everyone, including myself. All athletes should have the confidence to say, “I am who I am.” There are a few openly gay Olympians now, like Matthew Mitcham and Tom Daley in diving, and Edward Gal in equestrian – what about in sailing? Yep, one of my main competitors from the Netherlands, Coen de Koning, is gay. I’ve been competing against him for five years and he’s a multiple world champion. He’s a great bloke. In fact, he’s going to be one of our toughest competitors in Rio. It’s good for sport to have gender equality and sexual equality. I think that gap is finally closing. It’s awesome. So you have gay mates in the sport? I’ve met great gay couples while cruising. There was one Irish couple that we spent a few months cruising the world with. My sister and brother-in-law and I still keep in touch with them. They’re successful businessmen now living in Potts Point, Sydney and they got married about two years ago. You’ll be competing in the mixed multi-hull.
When Ian Thorpe came out it was inspirational to everyone, including myself. All athletes should have the confidence to say, I am who I am. Can you explain a bit about that for non-sailing people? We sail in the Nacra 17 mixed multi-hull. There’s only two crew, and it’s mixed so there’s one male and one female. My cousin, Lisa Darmanin is my crew. We’ve never had this in the sport before so it’s really exciting.