"I hope that any young LGBT person out there can see that no matter how alone you feel right now, you are not alone and that you can achieve anything and there is a whole lot of your chosen family out here ready to support you," Daley said.
"I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion," he added.
The jump in openly out gay, transgender and non-binary athletes this year underscores changing attitudes around the world and within the Olympic Games. The Associated Press reports as recently as the 2012 Olympics there had been just two dozen publicly out competitors, among more than 10,000.