Holty, an Ohio native, has earned his best times ever this season in the 100-meter breaststroke, 100-meter fly and 200-meter individual relay. He’s coming off an impressive junior campaign, in which he also set career best times in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke, and qualified for the Olympic trials in the 400-meter individual relay.
Holty joins an array of impressive young out male swimmers, including Nick Albiero, who’s also gunning for an Olympic spot.
At the Tokyo Games, there were at least 186 out LGBTQ+ athletes. This year, there could be even more in Paris.
A lifelong swimmer, Holty says he knew he was gay in the seventh grade. But he struggled with the idea of being a gay athlete.
There weren’t many examples.
“I watched the Olympics and had never heard of a gay Olympian,” he told the Lantern, OSU’s student newspaper. “There could have been one, but they just weren’t particularly out or anything like that.”
Now blessed with his own platform, Nathan isn’t holding back. He and Mason aren’t shy about showing off their budding gay lives on Instagram.
Though Holty came out to his friends and teammates, he struggled to tell his parents. He grew up in a religious household, and was unsure whether his family would accept him.
When he did tell them, it created a rift with his mother. Struggling with his familiar dynamics, Holty raced back to the pool.
It was his safe space.
“The pool was a safe space for me,” he wrote in Outsports. “A place to isolate myself, process my feelings and emotions and let out my aggressions. It was a safe space to take a break from the chaos in my life.”
When looking for colleges, Holty was seeking a bustling and inclusive campus in which he could himself. Immediately, he felt welcomed at Ohio State.
Holty says he was out to his teammates and coaches on day one, and didn’t waste time making his impact. During his freshman year, he co-founded Buckeye Spectrum, a student-athlete organization creating and promoting safe spaces for LGBTQ+ athletes.
Fully immersed in the Buckeye community, Holty says he rediscovered his passion for the pool.
“I began to rediscover my ‘why’ for swimming,” he says. “Why I wake up at 5 a.m. for 5:30 practices, why I work out 20-plus hours a week, and why I continue to try again after failures. I do it so I can try to be a role model for a struggling gay kid in swimming, someone I wish I had to look up to when I was younger.”
Like many gay athletes, Holty says he noticed his athletic performance improved. Finally, he was no longer carrying the burden of hiding.
“After I came out, my self-acceptance gave me the confidence to live openly and freely in this sport,” he said. “There were noticeable improvements in my performances because I felt way more confident in myself.”
As a futures record holder, Holty entered Ohio State as a top athletic prospect. But he knows his role is bigger.
There is still a lot of work to accomplish when it comes to swimming and inclusion. By being visible, Holty wants to play his role in eradicating those barriers.
“My experience with being out in swimming has been better than I could have imagined. But I know this is not always the case for everyone,” he said. “Homophobia is still a very relevant issue within swimming and has been observed from the age group club level to the international level.”
One person can’t take on homophobia in swimming alone, of course. But Holty is part of an inspiring group of barrier-breaking college-age athletes, from HBCU football player Byron Perkins to Nebraska gymnast Sam Phillips.
With the NCAA championship in late March, the men’s swimming season is entering its home stretch. We can’t wait to see what else Holty accomplishes along the way…with Mason by his side, of course!
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