Caitlyn Jenner was worried she was too “masculine” to ever get away with unveiling herself as Caitlyn and has credited her inner female for winning her gold medal in the 1976 Olympic games.
The 67-year-old reality star was known as Bruce Jenner when she competed in the games, before she underwent a gender transition in 2015, and despite evolving in sports as a male, she believes winning the prize inspired her to want to transition even more because she feared she was too masculine and wouldn’t ever be able to unveil Caitlyn.
Speaking on the U.K. TV show “This Morning” on Friday, May 12 about the first time she felt Caitlyn, she said: “I was a dyslexic kid and didn’t do very well and suffered from low self-esteem, I had identity issues. And I found that sports proved my masculinity. That was my way of going on the field to play sport and kicking everyone’s butt, never thinking how far I would go with it but I can guarantee it there was this little Caitlyn living inside, that little dyslexic kid inside that was making me out-train this guy and out-train the next guy because it was more important to me.”
And when asked by presenter Eamonn Holmes if Caitlyn should be credited for the medal, she replied: “Of course she should, yes, the day after the medal I remember waking up that morning, looking into the mirror, I had a medal on the counter I looked in the mirror and said, ‘oh my god what did I just do?’
“I mean I was very proud of what had happened the day before but how did I make this character Bruce so big and so masculine and it’s not me. I never thought I would ever be able to get away, I thought I was stuck with Bruce for the rest of my life because I built this character up so big.”
