GiveOUT Day: Simon Dunn, the rugby player who unexpectedly made the Australian bobsleigh team

Simon Dunn said his prayers under the spotlights of the Olympic stadium, confused as anyone as to how he’d made it so far in a sport he barely knew.

It was as much of a surprise to him, as it was to everyone else, when Wollongong local Simon Dunn found himself with the Australian flag on his lapel about to hurtle down a bobsleigh track at 150km/h.

“I’m not a religious man, but at the top of the track I was saying my prayers and my Hail Marys,” he told news.com.au.

Some athletes know from a young age what their chosen sport is and have a laser focus on it.

Not Mr Dunn; he just got blooded and bruised in a game of rugby one day.

“It was a complete accident I became an Australian bobsledder,” he said.

Yet despite his trepidation at embarking on a sport he’d previously barely heard of and that was known for its punishing injuries, he said it was a great experience

“I was the first gay man to represent any country in bobsleigh so it was massive honour to represent both Australia and my community.”

Simon Dunn’s first sporting love is rugby. But he left the sport initially because of the bullying.

This Friday, Mr Dunn will be encouraging people to donate on GiveOUT Day, a fundraiser for LGBTI projects.

Last year, $85,000 was raised during the inaugural GiveOUT Day which allows people to donate to organisations ranging from film festivals to domestic violence support bodies and local Pride events. This year, people can also donate by downloading a mobile phone wallpaper.

The 33-year-old is hoping LGBTI sports initiatives and organisations will get a few bob from the fundraising effort.

Sport is where his heart is and, in particular, rugby, a game he began playing when he was 17 in Wollongong. Yet he quit the sport for seven years, scarred by the homophobia that was, at the time at least, everywhere.

He only took rugby up again when he joined gay inclusive rugby team the Sydney Convicts where his experience, unsurprisingly, improved markedly.

So much so that when he moved to the Canadian city of Calgary in 2013, he joined local club the Canucks. But his rough and tumble playing style didn’t go down too well.

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Simon Dunn unexpectedly found himself representing Australia at bobsleigh.

‘YOU DON’T HAVE MUCH SKILL, BUT YOU’RE STRONG’

“Canadian rugby is gentler than Australia rugby. I was red carded in the first game and in the second I scored three tries but left the field beaten up and bloody nosed.

“This guy was like, ‘Listen, you don’t have much skill, but you’re strong and fast; have you ever considered bobsleighing?’”

Quite by coincidence, Mr Dunn had chosen to take an extended break in the same city where many Australian Winter Olympic teams practised their skills.

The guy that tapped him on the shoulder was Heath Spence who had been the pilot for the Australian bobsleigh team at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. It was the start of an unexpected sporting detour.

“I planned to be in Calgary for six months and got sidetracked by representing Australia.”

What followed was several intense years of hard work and training where he found himself under the spotlights in the North America’s Cup including at the former Olympic arena in Park City, Utah, Calgary and Whistler.

He was a brakeman, a role that had two very important tasks – get the sled moving as fast as possible and then bringing a piece of metal on skis shooting down any icy course at more than 100km/h to a halt.

For the rest of the race, he would hang on for dear life as the bobsleigh hurtled round bends smashing the crew into the side of the vehicle with tremendous force.

“If you’re not scared at the top of the course, you’re not human. You can’t really see anything as a brakeman so for a lot it’s just praying,” he said.

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Dunn (rear) was a brakeman for Australia.

Mr Dunn spent years training and representing Australia, but as the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics approached changes in the team gave him an inkling he might not be asked to travel to South Korea.

“Sport isn’t as fun when it’s your job. You wake up thinking about it; you go to bed thinking about it. And there was a lot of politics and drama weighing me down.”

He left the team, and Canada, and headed to London where he played socially with the Kings Cross Steelers, the world’s first LGBTI friendly rugby team. Eventually he ended up back in Sydney.

In both cities he played against other local teams whose members were mostly straight.

“I played one game and I was asked by another player if I really was gay because I was tackling so hard.

“How does your sexuality dictate how hard you can tackle? But I see remarks like that as a chance to educate people – and flatten a few people in the process.”

Homophobia still exists in rugby, said Mr Dunn. While most of their competitors are fine playing against a team mostly made up of gay men, the odd slur does get shouted in the heat of the game. Now, it’s called out by the refs.

Dunn said he was appalled by a meme that sort to portray him as a ‘normal’ gay person and said it was internalised homophobia.

MEME HE WAS APPALLED BY

But some prejudice can come from within your own community. Mr Dunn said he was appalled when last year a meme began doing the rounds that used him as an example of a “normal gay” who “doesn’t force upon you the fact they’re gay”.

That was contrasted with British comedian Julian Clary, famous for his camp persona.

“Gay people I do not respect,” stated the meme, included those who “dressed like a clown” and had rainbow flag clothing and jewellery.

“I think it’s sad someone in my community would put out a meme like that,” he said.

“At one point I didn’t get it too. But as I accepted my own sexuality, the more I understood no one is the same. Now I’m a massive fan of drag and camp; people should feel comfortable being themselves and we should be proud of who we are. If someone wants to put down someone who is camp, I’ll be the first person to defend them.”

Mr Dunn is also a big fan of the Pride in Sport program which helps sporting organisations with LGBTI inclusion initiatives, including putting on pride matches.

“Gay men in sport can be seen as a lesser. But it’s not that gay men are any worse at sport; we’re just more inclined to leave sport because we’re not welcomed.

“Pride matches are the kind of thing that for me is a major motivator. It’s showing we exist and we’re capable.”

Competing players have questioned Dunn’s sexuality because of his tackling style.

GIVEOUT DAY

Pride in Sport is one of 60 organisations that can be donated to through GiveOUT Day. All donations on the day are matched dollar for dollar.

“This Friday’s Give OUT Day gives these charities a platform and allows them to receive funding and continue their work,” Mr Dunn said.

With COVID putting the kybosh on traditional workplace fundraising, GiveOUT is encouraging people to download the app instead. From it, a “digital ribbon” can be purchased in the form of a mobile phone or smart watch wallpaper, the cost of which will be a donation.

The day before, on Thursday, a “virtual rainbow” crowd sourced fundraising event will be held.

Now a personal trainer, Mr Dunn is happily ensconced back in Australia. And he’s brought back a souvenir from his years away – a partner.

“I met him three years ago in London while we both played for the Steelers and now he plays on the Convicts too,” he said.

For Mr Dunn, playing alongside his boyfriend in a sport he almost gave up due to its homophobia is perhaps the most unexpected thing he’s done. Well, that and becoming Australia’s accidental bobsleigher.

GiveOUT Day is on Friday 16 October. You can give now at giveout.org.au

Originally published as GiveOUT Day: Simon Dunn, the rugby player who unexpectedly made the Australian bobsleigh team