These 2 gay teen divers celebrate first anniversary as boyfriends
Gay teen divers Max Linan and Matteo Santoro have been together a year and will compete at the World Aquatics Championships. The post These 2 gay teen divers celebrate first anniversary as boyfriends appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
Max Linan and Matteo Santoro will compete for Spain and Italy respectively in diving this month at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, but outside the pool they share life together as boyfriends who just celebrated one year together.
Linan, 19, posted adorable photos of himself and Santoro, 18, on Friday as they celebrated their anniversary, including one of them holding hands together under a table wearing matching bracelets.
Santoro responded to the post with 11 heart emojis and it was also celebrated by Chiara Pellacani, Santoro’s springboard synchro partner. Linan confirmed to Outsports that he and Santoro are gay and boyfriends.
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The two divers compete in the springboard events, with Linan set for the 1-meter springboard at the World Championships and Santoro the 3-meter springboard, the mixed 3-meter and 10-meter team event.
Both divers have performed well at the highest levels of diving. Linan has won two bronze medals at the Diving Grand Prix, while Santoro has won three gold medals at the World Junior Diving Championships, two silvers and a bronze at the World Championships, one silver and one bronze at the Diving World Cup and a bronze at the European Championships.
Santoro was stoked after winning the silver medal in 2024 in the mixed synchro event with teammate Pellacani at the world championships in Doha.
“It’s beautiful, this medal, it’s insane,” Santoro said. “I really enjoy this competition with Chiara. We are really good friends, almost like brother and sister. So it’s perfect. It’s amazing to finish second, I love it.”
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Diving has a long lineage of elite gay divers. Greg Louganis is maybe the greatest diver in history, winning four Olympic gold medals and becoming the only man to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympics. More recently, Matthew Mitcham of Australia and Tom Daley of Britain have dazzled crowds by winning gold medals as out gay athletes. There also have been several successful U.S. collegiate divers.
Whether Linan or Santoro ever reach those competitive heights is yet to be determined, but the fact that they are out and thriving at such a young age is inspiring.
You can follow Max Linan and Matteo Santoro on Instagram.
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The post These 2 gay teen divers celebrate first anniversary as boyfriends appeared first on Outsports.
