name: Kayla Miracle
Country: America
Sports: Wrestling, 62kg
Olympic experienceTokyo 2020
Social media: Instagram / ×
Who is Kayla Miracle?
Kayla Miracle, whose name sounds like it was coined by a professional wrestling manager, competed in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, becoming the first openly LGBTQ Olympic wrestler.
“In wrestling, we’ve always said, ‘Anyone can wrestle.’ she told Outsports in 2021.“Body types, sizes, genders, religions, sexual orientations. They try to be very inclusive, and I’m proud to be part of a community that’s really trying to push that.”
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Miracle dreamed of representing the U.S. Olympic team at an early age, and the dream seemed impossible at the time, as it was hard to find girls to wrestle with, and she mostly wrestled with guys.
“I first had the dream when I was 4 years old and there wasn’t even women’s wrestling in the Olympics back then,” she said.
In college, she competed at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, where she won several collegiate national championships.
Kayla Miracle at the Paris Summer Olympics
She had a great run in 2024, qualifying for the Olympics just days after winning the Pan American Wrestling Championships. She has medaled in each of these championships for the past four years.
In Tokyo, she made it to the round of 16 but lost 3-2 to China’s Long Jia in the first round of the qualifying tournament. In Paris, she will be looking to bring home a medal for Team USA. With two silver medals in the past three World Championships, she has a good chance of making the podium.
