In September this year, Gareth Thomas announced that he is HIV positive via a video on his Twitter account. The circumstances weren't ideal. His announcement wasn't so much planned as imposed on him, after a tabloid journalist turned up on his parents' doorstep to inform them of the news and ask for comment. "I am living with HIV," he declares in the video, statesmanlike. "Now you have that information, it makes me extremely vulnerable – but it does not make me weak."
Thomas remains the most prominent sportsman in the UK to have come out as gay, publicly, while still playing. He has since been the target of intense media scrutiny. But rather than allow these experiences to silence him, he has done very much the opposite, drawing on them to make an acclaimed documentary, Gareth Thomas: HIV and Me, the conclusion of which sees him complete the Ironman Wales event (that's a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run) in 12 hours 18 minutes. For context, that time placed him 413th out of 2,039 participants.
Men's Health met him for his cover shoot just weeks after his HIV announcement. "When I came out as gay, I always wanted to show a sign of strength, I'd always fight to be the strongest," he says. "Then, when I decided that I was going to take control of my life, I felt I needed to show another side of me, as far as fitness goes. So, I took that fitness to another level, because my mental images of people living with HIV were always frail, always weak. I wanted to display the total opposite of that."
There can be no doubt that he has succeeded.
The December issue of Men’s Health UK is on shelves now
