Queer Aussie surfer going for gold at Olympics after overcoming chronic illness
Tyler Wright is a two-time world champion in surfing. (Getty)
Australian pro surfer Tyler Wright is a two-time world champion – but now she’s going for gold at the Olympics… although she won’t be anywhere near Paris.
This will be Wright’s first Games – amid what she calls a “sausage-fest” in the sport.
“As a young girl becoming a woman in surfing, 12 years ago, it was an era of ‘sex sells’,” she previously told The Sydney Morning Herald. “Sexy, straight, blonde, female” surfers were most coveted and she didn’t fit into those stereotypes.
“I’m built like an athlete, I’m not straight, I don’t have blonde hair. While men were allowed to go out and be athletes – and get paid for doing it – a lot of women weren’t. If you invest in women, you’ll see them excel.”
While she’s definitely going to the Olympics, she’ll be almost 10,000 miles from the French capital. Instead, she’s headed to Tahiti, the South Pacific archipelago in French Polynesia which is hosting the surfing events.
Wright comes from a family of surfers, including brother Owen who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Does Tyler Wright have a partner?
Wright identifies as bisexual and met her future wife, Lili Baker, in 2021.
“Lily is just a vibe,” Wright told The Sydney Morning Herald. “She was working in a cafe in Newcastle [in New South Wales] when I was in town for a contest. I felt so respected and appreciated [by her]. Eventually, I asked her out, she said yes and here we are.”
The pair have “an ease and openness” coupled with “love, respect and appreciation”.
Does Tyler Wright have a chronic illness?
Wright suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome in 2018, telling the media that she thought she was “gonna die”. She missed 14 months of surfing after winning world titles in 2016 and 2017.
She has also suffered from a respiratory issue because of narrow airways that left her struggling to breathe during competitions. She underwent a “life-changing” procedure to put “seven screws” in her head to improve her breathing.
“Through one of the specialists, we ended up finding that most of the time I’m under-oxygenated and I’m semi-suffocating all the time through my nose, and my airways are really small. I shouldn’t be able to do what I do, according to my brain scans and my anatomy. It’s really unusual that I am a professional surfer,” Wright told The Guardian earlier this year.
“I feel different going out and competing this season.”
She also once spent three days in hospital, suffering debilitating period pain.
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