Nikki Symmons, Athlete Ally ambassador and Global Head of Partnerships at PMI's ERG Stripes, talks to myGwork’s Pepi Sappal about how coming out helped her to excel in international hockey, and why she is now helping to create safer spaces for other sports professionals to do the same, alongside her day job.

Former international Irish hockey player Nikki Symmons wants the sporting world and its associated sponsors, to step up and create a safer space to help sports professionals be their authentic selves, so they can play at their best.

At the age of 21, she decided to come out and share her true self to her family and close friends. Her experience of coming out was not only liberating but also transformative. “The best part of coming out was that it opened me up to being a better player and play at my best ever,” said Nikki, who recently became a proud mum to Ellie-Sky. Her family was very supportive. “My mum’s only concern back then was that she wanted to be a granny, which she is now.”

However, Nikki didn't publicly come out until she retired from sports at 31, a decade after she privately came out to family and friends. Her momentous public declaration on TV, alongside fellow sportsman and Irish hurling coach and champion Donal Og Cusack, marked her as the first female athlete to openly come out in Ireland.

The perception is that “it’s harder for men to come out. But, of course, it’s actually hard for both,” she highlighted. Thanks to LGBTQ+ role models like Nikki, we're seeing more women being comfortable about coming out in sports, than ever before. Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes is a case in point.

In fact, Nikki didn’t realize she was gay, until she went out one night with her team to a gay bar where she “felt at home straightaway.” “Then a year later, I came out at 21 to my friends and family,.” she added. Back then if girls played a sport like football or rugby, “you were automatically labelled a lesbian,” shared Nikki. “This did, and still does, put off girls from joining teams and playing, because they don't want to be labelled that way.”

Nikki attributes her love of sports, which started at a young age, to her mother and grandfather. “Sports was always part of me thanks to my mother and grandfather’s influence. As a single parent, my mum dragged me around the hockey pitches and I’d watch her play, along with a friend whose mother also played hockey. So, the two of us played hockey on the side lines as kids, and funnily enough both of us went on to play for Ireland; me on the women’s team and him on the men’s team, which was a huge coincidence.”

Her grandad was a rugby man, an official with the IRFU, and she’d always go to rugby matches with him, and often played rugby or cricket with him and her uncles in the backyard at family get togethers. But in the early years, she was actually an aspiring tennis player, who dreamed of playing at Wimbledon.

“During our summer holidays, I'd be out to get my name down for the tennis courts as many times as I was allowed the minute I woke up. But then I saw teenagers quitting at around 16, and always wondered why, until I got to that age.”

Nikki also quit tennis at 16 and found her true calling in hockey. The camaraderie of team sports appealed to her more than the solitude of tennis. “I preferred the team spirit of hockey, whereas tennis was a very lonely game,” she explained. “So hockey became the big thing for me. I played in the under 16, under 18 and under 21 provincial and national teams. Then when I turned 17, I played for the senior provincial team, and then the senior national team.”

Her dedication led her to compete internationally for 13 years, reaching great heights, and making a lasting impact on the sport. After she came out to her family and friends, Nikki represented Ireland at six Women's EuroHockey Nations Championships, during three Olympic qualification campaigns and during three Women's Hockey World Cup qualification campaigns; and was also a member of the Loreto team that won the inaugural Women's Irish Hockey League title. In 2015 she was inducted into the European Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

Nikki's excellence wasn't confined to hockey alone; she also excelled in cricket, representing Ireland against formidable opponents like Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She won many accolades in cricket too, having played cricket for Pembroke, and competed internationally. Her passion for cricket extended to coaching, where she discovered the harsh reality of discrimination. Sadly, some parents didn't want to send their kids to the cricket club that she coached and played at, “because a few lesbians were on the team,” shared Nikki. “In fact, one well-known Irish cricketer didn’t send his kids to my then club simply for being a team with a lot of gay women. They all loved the fact that we were good cricketers. But they just didn’t want to send their kids there, despite the fact that we were one of the best clubs in the country with some really great players – which ultimately is all that should have mattered really.”

Nikki's first-hand experience of discrimination spurred her to use her voice and platform to fight against LGBTQ+ discrimination and promote diversity and inclusion. It’s one of the many reasons, she officially decided to come out and use her voice to stamp out LGBTQ+ discrimination and promote diversity and inclusion, alongside her global role as Head of partnership for Stripes Global at PMI, based in Switzerland, where she moved to, with her partner more recently.

“I work in PMI’s global communications department in the smoke-free future business, and have also been heavily involved on the inclusion and diversity side, and founded our first employee resource group (Stripes Global), which is for the LGBTQ+ community. Now we have six ERGs in total, for women, race and ethnicity, differently-abled people, age and parents.”

Nikki's vision extends beyond corporate walls; she believes it's time for the sporting world to step up and create a safe space for LGBTQ+ athletes. “It shouldn't matter how anyone identifies because it's really just about the team and the performance. But in reality, many LGBTQ+ professional sports players have little choice but to wait to come out until they are about to retire to avoid negative publicity and backlash from fans, sponsors, agents, clubs, etc.”

Many LGBTQ+ professional sports people “are afraid that their sponsor or team will drop them, or that, they are not going to be selected, especially in high-end elite sports, where huge amounts of money and a fan base is involved, which ultimately deters many sports professionals from coming out,” shared Nikki. “So they will simply choose to wait until they retire, which is what I did, and of course, isn’t healthy for the individual or the team.”

She underscores the importance of sponsors and clubs going beyond performative gestures, by actively supporting LGBTQ+ athletes and assure them that coming out won't jeopardize their careers. “They need to go beyond the performative gestures such as just getting involved during Pride month campaigns or promote their zero tolerance of LGBTQ+ discrimination on their social media channels. If a player wants to come out, clubs need to share how they facilitate that and provide support to show that players can really be their authentic selves there. This responsibility lies with national sporting associations and clubs. But they haven’t stepped up in ways that sports brands like Nike have. National associations and sponsors must do more by reassuring LGBTQ+ sports professionals that they are not going to be dropped just because they have come out.”

The sponsors have got to "really step up too,” concluded Nicki. “Until that happens many LGBTQ+ sports professionals will remain reluctant to come out, unless they feel safe.” Nikki hopes that using her voice to share her story, will help to change things and encourage more LGBTQ+ sports stars and professionals to come out before they retire, so they too can play at the top of their game.

Nikki remains dedicated to making a difference through initiatives like 'Compete Proud,' a sports platform (founded by Olympian Javier Raya, and supported by the IOC Young Leaders programme of the International Olympic Committee), aimed at elevating the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion in sports. Her unwavering commitment to breaking down barriers and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights has earned her recognition as an ‘Outstanding LGBT Role Model’ in both 2020 and 2021, and she stands as a beacon of courage, authenticity, and inclusivity in the world of sports and business.

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