Campbell Harrison obtained his Olympic glory with a single kiss.

The out gay sport climber, who’s representing Australia at the Summer Olympics, kissed his boyfriend this week after his first event. Though Harrison finished 19th out of 20 competitors, he still relished the moment.

He says being in Paris, and competing amongst the best athletes in the world, is the greatest accomplishment of all. “It’s pretty crazy. This morning, when I woke up, I was kind of emotional. I thought ‘oh, I guess I’m an Olympian now’. So that’s kind of wild. At the end of the day, that was the big goal,” he said afterwards.

When Harrison finished his event, he raced right over to his BF, Justin Maire. Getty Images captured their embrace.

There is a long tradition of Olympians kissing their partners following athletic triumphs. Earlier this week, gold medal pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis (one of our latest Olympic crushes), smooched his girlfriend, Swedish model Desire Inglander, after he set another world record.

And nobody batted an eye. The same should be true for same-sex couples.

But sadly, that’s not always the case. Campbell and Justin know that first-hand.

During Pride Month, the official Olympics account on Instagram shared 10 pics of Campbell and Justin embracing each other. The post is titled, “A Kiss Worth Celebrating.”

The first image shows Campbell and Justin looking each other in the eyes, while the fourth shows their romantic celebration when Campbell qualified for the Olympics last year.

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“After not making it to Tokyo 2020, Australian sport climber Campbell Harrison did not give up and four years later secured a quota spot for the Olympic Games,” the post’s caption reads. “It was an emotional victory celebrated together with his partner, Justin.⁠”

The post was a huge hit, garnering more than 109,000 “likes.” But with social media being social media, there were also antigay remarks.  One of the common responses was the ol’ “What does this have to do with sports?!”, which is really just code for “I hate gay people.”

When confronted with homophobic abuse, queer people respond in a multitude of ways. Campbell, for his part, decided to double down on his love for Justin. He shared screenshots of hateful remarks on his Insta story, including one image of a man using a flamethrower. 

“We often tell ourselves that society as a whole is becoming more progressive, or that things are ‘getting better,’” Campbell wrote, per Outsports. “But the reality is there’s a reason why you see so few out, queer athletes in sport…. And that’s because we’re still not safe here… yet.”

He continued, “It’s homophobes and bigots that should feel unwelcome in sport. Not me. Not Justin. Not queer people just trying to live our lives without having to lie about and hide who we are.”

While that’s an important message, Harrison delivered the knockout blow in the comments. “All these people mad cause we’re hotter than they are 😘,” he wrote, tagging his BF. 

The truth hurts! 💅💅💅

When reflecting on the negative reactions, Campbell pointed out the hypocrisy.

“From what I could see, every other athlete who qualified whose partner was there, kissed their partner on the live stream, so it was very common,” he told Outsports at the time. “I’m glad all the feedback that I’ve seen has been positive. But it’s interesting how this one really caught people’s eye—the same-sex couple.”

Undeterred, Campbell didn’t think twice about kissing Justin in Paris. But don’t think he was trying to make some big social statement.

As he posted on his Instagram story, he was just showing his boyfriend love.

Oh, and newsflash… he’s going to do it again. And again! And again!

Harrison improved his standing Wednesday, finishing 13th in the Lead round. But he’ll always be at the top of our medal count.

We love… love!

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