Beach volleyball player Alex Ukkelberg came out as gay in an Instagram video posted Tuesday, Nov. 3. “When you grow up in a town of less than 800 people, being different is almost always a bad thing,” he wrote in the caption. It was also, he added, “definitely something you want to hide.”
He tagged the post #gayathlete and #comingout, with a Los Angeles location tag. “I knew I was different from a young age,” Ukkelberg wrote, adding that he didn’t know then what it meant.
“Up until my sophomore year of college, I genuinely thought I was straight,” the caption says.
Other athletes have come out publicly this year, too. Swiss beach volleyball pro Leo Dillier did it in an Instagram video in August, t-online reported, and former NRL player Kane Evans did it on Australian TV in June, The Associated Press reported. Both are on Gayety’s running list of public figures who came out in 2026.
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Alex Ukkelberg’s Futures Final With Charlie Siragusa in Rarotonga
On the sand, Ukkelberg and Charlie Siragusa reached the final of a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, in March, USA Volleyball’s results show. They won four matches on the way, two of them in three sets, including the semifinal: “Siragusa/Ukkelberg def. Abrams/Chadwick, 2-1 (15-21, 21-14, 16-14).”
They lost the final in straight sets: “Dóczi/Veress def. Siragusa/Ukkelberg, 2-0 (21-6, 21-15).”
In December 2025, Ukkelberg and Riley Owen won two qualifying matches at Futures Laginha Beach in Cape Verde and reached the quarterfinals, according to USA Volleyball. A Ukrainian team ended their run: “Likhatskyi/Likhatskyi (UKR) def. Ukkelberg/Owen, 2-0 (21-15, 21-16).”
He and Alexander Biz lost in the round of 12 at Futures Mount Maunganui in New Zealand in March 2025, the federation’s results show. In August 2024, USA Volleyball listed “Alex Ukkelberg/Dave Wieczorek” among the U.S. pairs set to play Futures Halifax in Canada.
Fifth at AVP Palm Beach and Two CBVA Open Titles
Ukkelberg and Cash Adamsen finished fifth at AVP Palm Beach in May 2025, Sandcast reported. His California Beach Volleyball Association page lists two Open wins in 2024: a Men’s Open at the Manhattan Beach Pier in March with Biz, and the “Mich Ultra Premier Tour: $2,000” at the Hermosa Beach Pier in August with Siragusa.
He and Siragusa also took third at a May 2022 “AVP Hermosa Beach Wildcard Series” event, in CBVA results that go back to 2017.
‘Too Gay, Not Gay Enough’ and a Small Minnesota Town
“I think I’ve always found it easier to let people get to know me first before I come out to them, rather than having to break through stereotypes just to be seen for who I am,” Ukkelberg wrote.
“I’ve gotten it from both directions,” he wrote. The two directions, as he put it: “too gay, not gay enough.”
“Nobody wants to be put in a box,” the caption continues. That goes double, he added, for “the young gay kid from a small town in rural Minnesota.”
“I never really wanted to be a spokesperson,” Ukkelberg wrote. Still, he wrote, “I also feel like it’s important for me to talk about it.”
