They Sydney Morning Herald speaks with Ji Wallace about his HIV status HERE.
THE Olympic silver medallist Ji Wallace says finding out he was HIV positive was like "a bomb going off" in his head.
Wallace, the only Australian to have won a medal in gymnastics (silver on the trampoline in Sydney), said he walked around for weeks in a haze of shock and disbelief after learning a year ago he had contracted the virus from his partner at the time.
But Wallace says he has never looked back since that difficult couple of months he spent alone in Canada grappling with his new reality. Which is why he went public this week, inspired by an interview with Greg Louganis, the four-time Olympic diving gold medallist who revealed he was gay and HIV positive in an autobiography in 1995.
"I was in London at the Games and watched Piers Morgan interviewing [Louganis] and it was just such a normal interview and so positive," Wallace said in Sydney after flying home from his role as an ambassador for the Federation of Gay Games.
"I felt like he had come a long way because when Greg came out it was a shock-horror story, quite negative, and it was really nice for him to sit there openly [this week] and talk about it. That night I had trouble sleeping so I wrote to Piers Morgan and said, 'Thanks for treating him well ... it's a big issue and it always will be but you didn't sensationalise anything.' I wanted to say thanks and that I too was an Olympian living with HIV."
The letter, which Wallace also sent to the Sydney Star Observer, a weekly newspaper for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, went viral on the internet and resulted in "literally thousands" of messages of support and gratitude for Wallace.
Read more about Ji Wallace and his HIV status HERE.
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