Nico Young is an All-American.
The star college runner, who publicly came out as gay last summer, recently placed eighth at the NCAA Championships in the 5,000-meter race–just enough to earn him a prestigious First-Team All-American spot. Young finished the race with a time of 14:11:13.
Young’s All-American finish caps off another incredible year for the California native and Northern Arizona University standout. Last fall, he finished second individually in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, and led the Lumberjacks to their sixth national title in the last seven years.
During the previous outdoor track season, Young placed third in the 5,000-meter race at the NCAA Championships, and set the second-best 5K time in NCAA history (13:11:30).
The fact that he has experienced all of this success since coming out isn’t a coincidence. On the “Queer Athlete Podcast,” hosted by former out BYU athlete Emma Gee, he says coming out as gay boosted his athletic confidence.
“As the season went on, I would get on the starting line and feel so much more confident in myself,” he said in his January interview. “I knew how much it took to come out. I was like, ‘Well, if I can do that, I can run this race.'”
A standout runner in high school–Young held the 3-mile record for American high school runners and was the 2019-20 National Gatorade Player of the Year in cross country and track and field–he came out in an Instagram post last August.
“Anyone who tells you that being gay is a choice is wrong,” Young wrote. “I am living proof that it is not a choice, it is something I have always known and been aware of, but have kept silent out of fear of rejection.”
Later in the post, Young says he’s realized that society’s heteronormative standards kept him in the closet.
“I have struggled to accept myself, but I am becoming more proud and happy with who I am,” he wrote. “I have realized that the only reason I never liked this part of who I am was because of what society has told me, not because of how I actually feel.”
In the aforementioned “Queer Athlete Podcast” interview, Young expounds on his journey of self-reflection.
“I had to tell myself, ‘I know this isn’t my choice. I know that. So the only choice I have is to be comfortable with myself. I know the truth, because I’m living it,'” he said. “The only reason I ever doubted that is because of what other people were saying. What I learned as a kid is very irrelevant to what I actually believe.”
It’s apparent that Young has found a home at Northern Arizona University. He tells Gee that he instantly felt comfortable when he visited the school’s campus in Flagstaff.
“When I was visiting schools to make my college decision, that was definitely something in my head: is this gonna be a group of people that’s going to be accepting of that?,” he said.
“When I visited this place, that seemed like it was going to be the case. I feel like our team shares a lot of strong values. We really care about each other as people, and who we are is much more important than our performances. We talk about those types of things all the time. I think that probably helped a lot.”
Those strong values have helped Young thrive as an athlete; but even more importantly, as a person. For the bulk of his life, his mood was dependent on his athletic success. But since coming out, he’s realized there’s more to life.
“I feel like I’ve only started to unpack this over the last couple of years—not tying my identity to my running,” he said. “Coming out has definitely helped that a lot. It’s improved my quality of life, for sure. If for some reason I don’t run well, I still have myself. I still have who I am. That’s never going to go away.”
Heading into his senior year, it’s clear that Young is more confident than ever. He boasts a large social media following (over 58,000 on Instagram) and models his own clothing line, run fast apparel, along with his younger brothers, Leo and Lex, who are standout runners in their own right.
Lex holds the 5,000-meter high school record, and Leo now holds the 3-mile record, beating out his older brother. Both are heading to Stanford University.
For the Young brothers, running is a family affair. It’s great to see Nico leading the pack as his true self.
Scroll down for more shots of Nico Young racing, training and living his best life…
Fahd
Thanks for highlighting Nico, he´s an excellent role model. I wish him every success….