Hig Roberts, a two-time national champion in Alpine skiing, came out as gay, telling the New York Times, “It’s part of me and I’m proud of it, and I’m ready to be happy.”
Said Roberts in a lengthy profile: “Not being able to be who I am and not be able to be openly gay as a professional athlete was truly hindering my performance. I just woke up one morning and I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ I love this sport more than anything — I’m so lucky and privileged to be doing this — but I can’t go on another day not trying to achieve the person that I am meant to be. Which I think for each and every one of us, one of those main goals needs to be happiness and authenticity.”
The NYT adds: “He joins only a few L.G.B.T.Q. athletes in elite skiing who are out. Anja Pärson, a former Alpine skier from Sweden, came out as lesbian in 2012. Erik Schinegger wrote a book in 1988 about his experience as a transgender and intersex skier after coming out in 1968. And Gus Kenworthy, a former U.S. freestyle skier who now competes for Britain, came out as gay on ESPN in 2015.”
Read the full profile here.
