Excited about getting the chance to run for Oklahoma State, Abbie Hetherington's only concern was how she would tell people she was gay.
In a first-person essay for Outsports, Hetherington, a senior on OSU's cross-country and track teams and the 2017 Big 12 indoor champion in the 1,000-meter race, detailed her coming-out experience once she came to Stillwater from Carlisle, England, and the tentativeness she had in revealing her sexuality to teammates and coaches.
"In England, I really didn’t have a coming out process," she wrote. "It was very natural. Everyone was accepting. Nobody even questioned it.