Gay Olympian Justin Lui retires, says coming out was ‘most empowering experience’
Gay Olympian Justin Lui has played his final international match for Team Canada, with his future as a pro athlete not clear.
Mark
Pro volleyball player Justin Lui has officially retired from international competition, Volleyball Canada has announced, ending a career that started as a kid in the sport at age 12 and brought him to major college sports and the Olympics.
Lui came out to his Stanford Cardinal men’s volleyball team during his career on The Farm.
That was before the school chose to cut the program. Before the team missed a season, Stanford athletics reversed its decision and kept the team.
“Coming out while playing was one of the hardest things I’ve had to work through, but it has also been the most empowering experience,” Lui said in a retirement statement released by Volleyball Canada.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
“It’s strange to say, because if you asked my 16-year-old self he would answer very differently, but I can’t imagine going through this athletic journey any other way. I am an openly gay athlete and I am proud of it.”
Justin Lui would play libero for four seasons for Stanford, earning AVCA All-America honorable mention his final two seasons.
He played for the Canada national team for eight seasons, including the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. At those Olympics, Canada finished in 10th place of the 12 men’s volleyball teams.
“Sitting on the sidelines, I remember staring out at the crowd. Fans cheering for us, fans cheering against us, and all those who wanted to celebrate the sport. I was filled with such immense joy and just remember thinking to myself how lucky I was to be living this experience,” he said in a statement.
Justin Lui retires before LA28 Olympics push
With the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in now 22 months, this move may be in part to make it more clear who might be on that roster, if Canada qualifies.
That’s still a big question. Six countries have punched their men’s volleyball tickets to LA28 — Brazil, Cuba, Japan, Tunisia and Poland, as well as the host United States.
Canada is currently ranked 16th in the world FIVB rankings. There will be a total of 12 teams in the tournament.
Either way, Lui fulfilled his Olympic dream in Paris. Now we’ll wait to see what he plans with the rest of his career. The release by Volleyball Canada said he was stepping away from the National Team, not pro volleyball — He’s played in Finland, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
Lui ended his statement with Volleyball Canada with a nod to his parents, as well as appreciation for a sport that has given him “an extraordinary opportunity to discover what I’m capable of and how I want to show up in this world.”
Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.
