Gay cycling champion Graeme Obree to write autobiography

After coming out last month, cycling world champion Graeme Obree says he plans to write an autobiography.

The sportsman, known as the Flying Scotsman, recently admitted that he tried to kill himself twice as he struggled to accept his sexual orientation.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s If I Knew Then programme, he said he and former wife Anne will work on the book.

He added that he was considering becoming a counsellor because people now open up to him about their struggles with depression.

He said: “I’m reinventing myself as a writer.

“I’m just finishing a training manual and Anne and I are both going to work on an autobiography.

“Anne has insight on stuff I can’t even remember – her emotions and the kids and all of that – so that’s in the pipeline.”
He added: “But I am actually very tempted to train to become a counsellor. People say I should have a job in cycling and all of that, but actually I have more experience in life.

“I have experience of what it is like to be depressed, what it is like to have personal issues, everything like that.

“Now and again somebody will come up and say ‘listen, I know you’ll understand’, and they’ll offload how they are so depressed and they can’t tell anybody because they are a doctor or a lawyer or something.”

Obree, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, said he came out to his wife and family in 2005 after seeing a psychologist.

He has struggled with bullying, depression and the death of his brother.