Aidan Faminoff, an openly gay competitive diver at Florida State University, received the ACC Diver of the Week award Oct. 8.
This is Faminoff’s first Diver of the Week honor of his career, following his first springboard victory in the one-meter against Georgia Tech on Oct. 6. Faminoff also placed fourth against Pittsburgh.Faminoff amassed a social media following after his coming out story appeared in OutSports last year. “Diving was a way to get my mind off of all the emotions and feelings of not expressing who I really was,” Faminoff wrote.
Faminoff officially came out in a post on his Instagram account, which currently has more than 85,000 followers. “It has been emotionally tough not being able to talk about it with anyone but I feel ready,” the post reads. “To the people who don’t know, I am gay.”
Faminoff said coming out has made him a better diver. Being comfortable around his teammates gives him the confidence to succeed.
