Blake Skjellerup (born 13 June 1985 in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand) is a short track

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

who competed for New Zealand at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gret ...

; finishing sixteenth.

Sporting career

Skjellerup began speed skating at the age of 10 in

after an injury from roller blading forced him to stop playing

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

for a season. His brother introduced him to speed skating to keep him active. Blake quickly took to the sport and began spending as much time as he could in skates. In short track Blake had found not only has passion but something that he was good at. In his career he has won five New Zealand national titles and broken numerous national records throughout his career. Skjellerup currently holds 3 New Zealand individual records in the 500, 1000, 1500 meter event, and 1 record in the 5000m men's relay. He attempted to qualify for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia but was not selected. Skjellerup is currently living in Sydney, Australia.

Personal life

Skjellerup is of Danish and Māori (Ngāti Pāmoana) descent. In 2003 he was awarded the Junior Māori Sportsman at that year's Māori Sports Awards. Skjellerup

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

in an interview with Australian magazine '' DNA'' in May 2010, saying he had decided to wait until after the Vancouver Games to do so in order to focus on his performance and to avoid turning off potential sponsors. He is one of only a few openly gay Olympic athletes and was reported at the time as having a partner, also an athlete. In 2011, Skjellerup and

Matthew Mitcham Matthew John Mitcham OAM (born 2 March 1988) is a retired Australian diver and trampolinist. As a diver, he was the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10m platform, and he is the 2nd highest single-dive score in Olympic history (at the time it wa ...

, a gay Olympic athlete from Australia, were named by the Federation of Gay Games as ambassadors to the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland, Ohio. Skjellerup also became an advocate for ''Pink Shirt Day'', a nationwide campaign to fight bullying in New Zealand. In 2014 he appeared in the documentary film '' To Russia with Love''."‘To Russia With Love’: Can Johnny Weir Save Russia’s Gays?"
''

Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'', 29 October 2014. In July 2015, Skjellerup married his boyfriend, lifestyle blogger Saul Carrasco, in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. However, based on Skjellerup's Snapchat posts the couple has separated or divorced.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skjellerup, Blake 1985 births Living people New Zealand male short track speed skaters New Zealand people of Danish descent New Zealand Māori sportspeople Olympic short track speed skaters of New Zealand Short track speed skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics Gay sportsmen New Zealand LGBT sportspeople LGBT speed skaters 21st-century LGBT people