“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 says. “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.”
Roberts continues on by saying how he felt “muted” by the Olympics organization, and he wants to see change in the world of sports to create a more inclusive environment for players.Related Article: Adam Rippon Skates His Way Into Our Hearts A veteran skier, Roberts has made more than 30 World Cup starts, competed for the U.S. Ski team and has taken home two national titles. He was first alternate to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games, a year where we saw a record-breaking 15 out, LGBTQ athletes competing in the Winter Olympics. Three were from the U.S.: Brittany Bowe (speedskating), Gus Kenworthy (slope-style free skiing), and Adam Rippon (figure skating). Roberts decided to stop skiing professionally in 2019. In addition to Kenworthy, he now joins only a few LGBTQ athletes in elite skiing who are out. Anja Pärson, a former Alpine skier from Sweden, came out as lesbian in 2012, and Erik Schinegger wrote a book in 1988 about his experience as a transgender and intersex skier after coming out in 1968.
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