PUNCHY Ann-Marie Saccurato, left, and Angel Bovee are a happy Brooklyn boxer couple.

When retired NBA star John Amaechi announced in February that he’s gay, it caused a pretty big flurry of excitement in the media—as did such announcements from WNBA players Sheryl Swoopes and Sue Wicks, tennis pro Amelie Mauresmo and former baseball outfielder Billy Bean in recent years. Still, the list of out athletes—especially those currently in the game—is shockingly short, and that’s the subject of In the Life’s latest installation, “The Last Closet.”

“The closets remain padlocked in one last arena: the world of sports,” says Diana Nyad, host of this episode (the LGBT newsmagazine, a TV pioneer, has aired on public television since 1992). Nyad, a long-distance swimmer in the ’70s and now a radio commentator, came out as a lesbian long after her athletic career ended.

It’s similar to the story of Amaechi, who kicks off the episode with a poignant, British-accented monologue about the taboo gayness in the NBA. “Sports is the elixir of machismo,” he says on In the Life. “Athletes are supposed to be aggressive—sexually attractive to any woman—irresistible. There is no interception between the ideal image of an athlete and the stereotype of a gay man.”

Female athletes, of course, are frequently perceived to be lesbians—though many go to great lengths to hide their sexuality. Not so in the case of Ann-Marie Saccurato, World Boxing Council Lightweight World Champion. This Brooklyn powerhouse is the main focus of the In the Life episode, which tells the story of how she recovered from a life-threatening car crash to become one of the biggest forces in women’s boxing. The show also examines Saccurato’s openness about her sexual orientation and her relationship with fighter Angel Bovee. “I never questioned being out, so it baffles me when people ask about it,” Saccurato, 29, tells TONY. “You can be the world’s greatest athlete. Why does it matter who you come home to?”

In the Life’s “The Last Closet” airs Sun 8 at 10:30pm.