Two-time NCAA champion swimmer Abrahm DeVine has leveled charges against his former Stanford University swimming coaches, claiming they kicked him off the team because he is gay.
DeVine graduated from Stanford this year, but he was eligible to swim for the team again as a postgrad. He claims the university didn’t invite him back because of his sexuality.
“Plain and simple: There are surface-level reasons I was kicked off the Stanford swim team,” he alleged via Instagram, “but I can tell you with certainty that it comes down to the fact that I am gay.”
“This is a pattern,” DeVine further charged. “Homophobia is systematic, intelligently and masterfully designed to keep me silent and to push me out. I am a talented, successful, educated, proud, gay man: I am a threat to the culture that holds sports teams together.”
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He continued, “I want something to change, because I can’t take it anymore. My story is not unique. There are queer voices everywhere and all you have to do is listen. I am asking, begging for some sort of action. If you are reading this, this post is for you! Gay or straight, swimmer or not. None of us are exempt from homophobia. It is your civil duty to educate yourself. If you choose not to, it is at my expense.”
DeVine’s former Stanford coaches, Greg Meehan and Dan Schemmel, have both denied any homophobic motives in not inviting him back to the team.
“Abe wasn’t invited back to train with us this fall, as a postgraduate, for reasons entirely unrelated to his sexuality,” they said in a joint statement. “We take pride in the inclusivity and supportiveness that exists on both our men’s and women’s teams, but we will continue to strive, as always, to improve those aspects of our culture.”
Devine previously won NCAA championship for the 400-meter individual medley in 2018 and 2019, and represented Team USA at the World Aquatics Championships in South Korea.
lauraspencer
How long has be been out? Was he out the previous swim seasons? They obviously let him swim his entire college career. Doubt that being gay in the swimming world is that big of a deal. More to this story.
Vince
I thought most were.
nmharleyrider
Obviously you have not been watching swimmers ane their careers as that is most assuredly not the case .
Ryan99
You don’t invite back a championship winning swimmer for “other reasons”.
Riiiggght….
jlogb
He can teach me to swim!
MudgeBoy
I’d be happy to learn the back stroke from him.
boymikefl
Stanford is non-denominational meaning, they have many different anti-gay religions among their students. Nothing good comes out of religion. Just believe in God as all “religion’s do” and leave it at that. 3 letters. G-O-D.
Josh447
Stanford is not non-denominational by any means. Non-denominational means it’s a Christian University but does not stand for any particular denomination of Christianity. Stanford has no religious affiliation whatsoever. It is a fully secular University.
nmharleyrider
Typical gay response to a very serious issue so that glib attitude is not helpful
rustyiam
The first place I go when a traumatic event happens to me is instagram! Big eye roll here!
Bob LaBlah
From the article: ““Abe wasn’t invited back to train with us this fall, as a postgraduate, for reasons entirely unrelated to his sexuality,” they said in a joint statement. “We take pride in the inclusivity and supportiveness that exists on both our men’s and women’s teams, but we will continue to strive, as always, to improve those aspects of our culture.”
This reminds me of how Greg Louganis cried about the same “wolf” only for it to be learned later not even his still in the closet teammate could stand being around him. He was such a tool on trips he got his own room because no one wanted to be his roommate. Don’t forget that many in the community have personalities that for some reason are visible to everyone but them and its always everyone else’s fault and never theirs.
JAW
Well said
djmcgamester
Doesn’t get invited back, assumes it’s his sexuality. He has given no evidence that he was mistreated in any way due to his sexuality. The claim is based purely on not being invited back. Another drama queen hoping to cry homophobia for his 15 minutes of fame.
Antinous
I’m not buying this. I went to Stanford and even 20 years ago it was an extremely inclusive place where overt homophobia was considered absolutely socially unacceptable. They had a freshman seminar in the year 2000 on gay autobiography. Even on the football team in current times I seriously doubt being gay would be an issue, much less the swim team. He swam for 4 years and the team may have policies about how many graduate students can participate (most college sport leagues have age limits preventing a 30 year old ‘freshman’ from competing against 18 year olds). This guy sounds like the type of person who acts like an ass at a party, gets called out on it, then screams homophobia.
dsflood
I’m glad I’m not the only one not quite buying this story. We know nothing about this guy, so there may be other issues we don’t know about.
I know firsthand homophobia is all too real but swim team at a major university and especially Stanford would not be where I would expect it.
Now football i could see … but even then to me Stanford would seem least likely of major colleges.
wellinmysoul
I’m thinking there is way more to this story. We will soon know more. Maybe he has no friends on the team…in a vacuum the odd man is out. just saying.