Olympic Rugby Player Nicole Heavirland Comes Out as Gay
Five Rings to Rule Them All podcast, where she expressed a wish to have seen her name on Outsports’ list of out Olympians. “That article came out, and I was scrolling all the way to the rugby section and I was hoping I was on this list,” she said. “That would be easy.
I’m hoping it’s just right here, Nicole Heavirland. When I saw it wasn’t there, I was like, dang it. But that would have been the easier route.”Heavirland, from Whitefish, Mont., began playing rugby at age 15.
She attended college at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where she initially played basketball but soon switched to rugby, becoming one of the academy’s all-Americans in 2016.
She was a reserve on the U.S. team at the Olympics in 2016 but didn’t end up playing. In this year’s Olympics, she was a starting player, and her team finished sixth.She has also participated in other competitions, including the Rugby World Cup Sevens.
