Kayla Miracle has been dreaming of her Olympic moment since she was 4 years old.
The wrestler born and raised in Indiana found the sport early in life as her siblings and father competed in and coached wrestling.
As she tells us on the latest episode of the Five Rings To Rule Them All podcast, when she started in the sport, women did not compete in the Olympics in wrestling. Throughout high school, she competed against boys. In college wrestling women, she was a four-time Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association College National champion for Campbellsville University in Kentucky.
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All the while, she didn’t question her orientation. Yet in recent years she has discovered she is a lesbian, now living in Arizona and dating her girlfriend who’s in the Midwest.
Competing in Tokyo this July at the Summer Olympic Games is an opportunity to show that her sport of wrestling is inclusive of LGBTQ people.
“With wrestling, we always try to say, ‘any body can wrestle,’” she said. “Shape, size, gender, religion, orientation. They try to be very inclusive. I’m proud to be part of a community that is really trying to push for that.”
Outsports believes she is the first publicly out LGBTQ person to compete in wrestling at the Olympic Games. In fact, LGBTQ Olympic historian Tony Scupham-Bilton does not have any wrestler on his list of known LGBTQ Olympic athletes, whether they were out while they competed or came out after.
It’s quite a designation for Miracle.
You can listen to the conversation with Olympic wrestler Kayla Miraclo on the Five Rings To Rule Them All podcast on Megaphone, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple podcasts and many more platforms. Just search for Outsports wherever you get your podcast.
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You can follow Kayla Miracle on Instagram and on Twitter.
