In 2016, in Rio, Rebecca Catherine Quinn won bronze in the football tournament under the colors of the Canadian team.
Five years later, the athlete, who will play the final against Sweden on Friday August 6, is about to win a medal again, gold or silver, but this time under the name of Quinn .
In September 2020, in a long message posted on his Instagram account, this athlete announced to be transgender and non-binary.
"Coming out is difficult," wrote the 25-year-old defender who identifies neither as a man nor as a woman and who wishes to be designated by neutral pronouns.
“While I have always lived openly as a transgender person with the people I love around me for years, I always wondered when I was going to say it publicly. want is to be visible to the queer community which is not used to seeing one of its members on a soccer field. "
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A post shared by Quinn (@ thequinny5)
"I really understood who I was"
Born in Toronto, Quinn started playing football at the age of five in a very athletic family. His father was a rugby player and his mother a basketball player. The Canadian continued her studies in the United States at Duke University in North Carolina. This is where the change takes place in his mind, as the So Foot website reports: "I really understood who I was. Before, I couldn't put my feelings into words. We live. in such a binary world, and since my earliest childhood, I received injunctions to behave and present myself in such a way. Anything that deviated from it was perceived negatively ".
In 2017, his talent exploded. The Washington Spirit selects the athlete in 3rd position, the best position for a Canadian in a Draft. After a season in the North American league, Quinn signed in February 2019 in France with Paris FC until the end of the season, then returned to the other side of the Atlantic where he now plays with OL Reign, at the alongside American star Megan Rapinoe.
Since her transition, her teammates have expressed their support for her.
In June, members of his team presented him with a jersey bearing his number 5 in the colors of the rainbow, representing the pride of the LGBT community.
"They have adhered to this change and have accepted discussions that are not always comfortable. I love them for that," she reacted on her Instagram account.
However, the reactions have not always been positive.
"Some players have already told me openly that they do not approve of me being transgender. I have also sometimes received hurtful remarks," she admitted according to So Foot.
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"The fight is not over yet"
In Tokyo, however, he received hundreds of messages of encouragement "from young people saying they have never seen a transgender person in sport before".
"Sport is the most exciting part of my life. If I can allow kids to play the sports they love, that's my heritage and that's why I'm here," Quinn told the outlet. Canadian CBC.
In Japan, the player is one of three openly transgender or non-binary athletes.
New Zealander Laurel Hubbard competed in the weightlifting, while Alana Smith of the United States lined up in the skate event.
Under guidelines adopted in 2003, the IOC only allowed transgender participation to athletes who have undergone gender reassignment surgery, but dropped this requirement in 2015, focusing on lower testosterone levels. But this regulation is debated. Some believe that trans athletes have a physical benefit related to these testosterone levels. The IOC recognizes that the new framework, which provides simple guidelines for international federations rather than strict rules, is not the last word on this subject. According to AFP, the Olympic body should publish new guidelines on the issue after the Tokyo Games.
In a post on Instagram, Quinn in any case expressed all his pride to participate in this planetary event after coming out.
She was moved to see her new identity on the roster and on her accreditation to the Games, while insisting that previous athletes had been unable "to live their truth for the sake of the world" and that "the fight is not not yet finished ".
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A post shared by Quinn (@ thequinny5)
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