Gay Texas track and field athlete thrives in first season with Longhorns
Norwegian decathlete Jonathan Hertwig-Odegaard would rather keep the focus on sports but realizes that talking about being gay can help others. The post Gay Texas track and field athlete thrives in first season with Longhorns appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
Two weeks ago, Norwegian decathlete Jonathan Hertwig-Odegaard scored 8,002 points at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen, Norway, reaching the coveted 8,000 milestone for the first time. This fall, he headed to the University of Texas, where he will compete on the track and field team. He’s also gay.
While the last fact is one that Hertwig-Odegaard doesn’t want to focus on, it’s one that makes him stand out in men’s track and field, where there was only one out gay athlete in Paris at 2024 Olympics (another athlete came out after the Games). He’s also only the second gay decathlete Outsports has written about in our 26 years of publication.
In an interview Friday with NRK, Norway’s public radio and TV broadcaster, Hertwig-Odegaard talked about being gay, along with the ambivalence he feels in having to discuss it in the first place.
“I think it’s great that you can be a role model, but at the same time I hope in the long run that it doesn’t have to be necessary, and that it gets so much publicity and attention,” he said. “I think that being openly gay is not really anything new. I mean, there are no athletes who are heterosexual who need to come out about it.”
Hertwig-Odegaard turned 20 on July 28 and is ranked 81st in the world in the decathlon, the sport where athletes compete in 10 events and have to be well-rounded (he also participates in other track and field events). He has won the Norwegian Under 20 title three times and was a silver medalist in the Under 18 European Championships. At Texas, he will have a chance to compete for SEC and NCAA titles. The Longhorns begin their indoor track and field season Dec. 6.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Related
This college decathlete came out as gay over a game of Risk
Ryan Chase, a University of New Mexico decathlete, has found happiness — and his boyfriend — after coming out as gay.
NRK described Hertwig-Odegaard in the interview as “confident and self-assured as he sits in front of the camera and microphone, answering questions he wishes were never asked.”
“Among athletes, people talk about ‘it’s so brave and tough’ when people come forward.” Hertwig-Odegaard said. “I feel that there is a bit of a wrong focus, that the responsibility should not lie with individuals. I think it is the responsibility of society at large to facilitate that people are comfortable being open about their sexuality, also as athletes.”
Yet he is aware that knowing there were other gay male athletes “would have helped me as a young boy or young athlete.”
Any uncertainty he had about being gay has dissipated as he has gotten older. “Now I’m proud and happy with who I am, and I don’t think there’s a problem,” Hertwig-Odegaard said. “So if others do it, then that’s their problem.”
Since Hertwig-Odegaard would rather keep the focus on his sport, let’s hear from him about the importance of scoring 8,000 points in the decathlon and becoming part of the 8K Club.
“It means a lot,” he said. “What’s so great about athletics is that it’s so measurable, with numbers and scores. So to go over 8,000, I feel like that’s a real decathlon result.”
2026 update: On Feb. 1, Hertwig-Odegaard competed in his first collegiate heptathlon (60-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000-meter run) and recorded a personal best score of 5,788 points to finish third in the Razorback Invitational.
You can follow Jonathan Hertwig-Odegaard on Instagram.
Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.
The post Gay Texas track and field athlete thrives in first season with Longhorns appeared first on Outsports.
