Alec Smith, younger brother of CrossFit Games winner Ben Smith, is not only an athlete in his own right but has made a name for himself outside of his brother’s shadow in the CrossFit games as both an individual and as a part of the team/association CrossFit Krypton.
Alec recently came out on Instagram through a video that he captioned, “My coming out story. Honestly one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.”
Referencing a line from Lizzo’s hit song, “Truth Hurts,” the hunky athlete added, “Took a DNA test, turns out I’m gay.”
“So I’m gay, and I’m at the point at life now where I’m ok with that,” shared Smith. “I’ve accepted it and I’m happy with who I am.”
“It’s been a struggle, it really has. My whole life, I’ve known that I was different,” he continued. “When I was twelve years old, I knew that I was attracted to guys. And I hated myself for being attracted to guys, which led me to hide who I was. I hid who I was in high school, I hid who I was in college. I found myself playing sports. Doing all these things to distract myself from who I really was. It just got to the point where it was unhealthy and I decided to tell somebody. And after I told one of my closest friends, it just led me to telling more and more of my friends. And truly just talking about it helps so much.”
He also had advice for others dealing with the idea of coming out: “When the time is right, the time is right… just focus on yourself and what’s important to you.”