December 14, 2020
'I'm Ready to Be Happy.' Elite Alpine Skier Hig Roberts Comes Out
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Elite Alpine skier Hig Roberts came out in part to encourage younger professional skiers to be comfortable with their sexuality.
"Across men's sports in general, there are few openly gay athletes. In the four North American major leagues – the N.F.L., the N.B.A., the N.H.L. and M.L.B. – there are no active players who publicly identify as L.G.B.T.Q., though a handful of former athletes have come out in recent years," reports the New York Times in a story about one willing to come out.
Professional Alpine skier Hig Roberts touched upon the reason why. "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," Roberts said in an interview this month with The New York Times in which he came out publicly.
Before he retired in 2019 and moving on to a career overseas in finance, Roberts was amongst the elite of "the international elite of Alpine skiing – a sport in which speed, strength and focus are the currency. Though he missed a spot on the American team for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, he had made 31 World Cup starts, competed for the U.S. Ski team and won two national titles," adds the NYT.
One reason for him coming out at this time is to give younger skiers the comfort level to come out.
"I just woke up one morning and I said, 'Enough is enough,'" Roberts said. "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."
Roberts is only one of four athletes in skiing who have come out: Anja P�rson, 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.
"I am gay," Roberts said. "It's part of me and I'm proud of it, and I'm ready to be happy."
Check out these pics from Roberts' Instagram: