In Michael Gunning’s life, none of this occurs where a four-year-old boy who is afraid of the water never enters the pool. where a Kent teenager is not considered Olympic material by anyone. In the midst of chaos and grief, a survivor of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing quietly withdraws from sports and completely vanishes from public view. There is no such version British sport is genuinely superior as a result.
Gunning, who is currently 32 years old, is one of the few athletes whose career takes on greater significance once the competition is over. He competed at two World Aquatics Championships and set national records while representing Great Britain and Jamaica at the top level. He made it to Tokyo 2020. Then the pandemic struck, FINA changed its requirements, Jamaica was given one universality spot Gunning was not chosen. Almost certainly the fastest male swimmer in Jamaican history, he retired in 2022 with little fanfare and no Olympic medals. Most athletes would be resentful of such an outcome. Instead, he went to host the swimming coverage at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Gunning’s decision to switch from the starting block to the broadcast booth illustrates how he has always considered his own reach. He became Jamaica’s first openly gay athlete on a national team after coming out as gay on the reality show “The Bi Life” on E! Entertainment. It wasn’t a planned publicity stunt. He has made it clear that he aspires to be the role model he was never given.
The Attitude Pride Award he received in 2019 and the Kaleidoscope Trust patronage he shares with Tom Daley indicate that the larger LGBTQ+ community has been paying close attention, though it is difficult to determine whether that registered back in Jamaica, where same-sex relationships are still illegal.
The documentary project seems like a logical next step. Gunning directed and produced “Beneath the Surface”, which debuted on Sky Sports in October 2024. It was a complete creative debut for someone who had never worked behind the camera before. A candid interview with Jake Daniels, the Blackpool forward who came out as gay in 2022 and is still the only active male professional football player in England, was included in the film, which examined LGBTQ+ representation in elite sport.
The documentary received accolades for its subtle sincerity, which is difficult to fake. Observing these exchanges gives me the impression that Gunning gained access through sincere shared experience rather than charm or profile. Gunning had actually experienced some form of that same exposure, which is why Daniels trusted him.
Additionally, he does more than just produce television. The NSPCC campaigns, the school visits, the water safety advocacy work with the Royal Life Saving Society the mentoring through the British Elite Athletes Association are all more than just tasks to cross off a publicist’s to-do list. Growing up in Beckenham, Gunning watched his parents struggle in pools they had never really been taught to navigate and learned to swim at the age of four despite being afraid of the water.
Gunning is one of the few individuals in the sporting establishment who is advocating for water safety in Black and South Asian communities, a topic that still doesn’t receive nearly enough attention in the UK.
Gunning built this across two national identities, two sports careers, a near-death experience, a pandemic, a very public coming-out a retirement before most athletes even peak. The Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe listing in 2024 acknowledged all of this collectively the swimming, the media the advocacy but it also subtly highlighted something worth saying aloud. For one person, it’s quite a biography. Isn’t it amazing that he has come to support diversity in British pools? It’s that he’s still upright and seems to be just getting started.
It’s another matter entirely whether British sport has actually embraced what he’s been saying. There is still a perception that swimming representation falls well short of the rhetoric, from coaches to governing bodies to communities being inspired to take up the sport. Nobody is more aware of this than Gunning. There are worse places to push than the one he is in right now: visible, credible incredibly reluctant to let go.