author, and being gay is just one part of who i am. first and foremost, i am an american athlete and i am proud to live in a country that encouraged diversity, openness, and tolerance. rachel nichols, host of cnn s unguarded. the man is 50 years of age. he has never been public with this part of his life until now. why now? earlier this week, president obama named boitano among a few other athletes to a u.s. deligation of athletes. a few like billie jean king are gay, have been openly gay for some time. there was a lot of discussion about this was in part a statement to the russian government. here s who we re bringing over there. brian boitano, as you know, has never publicly talked about his sexuality, never said if he was gay or not. been asked the question a lot, but hasn t answered it. a lot of newspapers the past few days have been vague, however,