Kayla Harrison
Abused by her coach as a teenager, she became the first American to win Olympic judo gold
Kayla Harrison started judo at six in Middletown, Ohio, because her mother had a black belt. She was talented and by her early teens was travelling to tournaments with her coach, Daniel Doyle. From the age of 13 he sexually abused her, and it continued for three years. When she finally told a friend, and then her mother, the case went to the police, and in 2007 Doyle was sentenced to ten years in prison.
She was 16 and, by her own account, wanted to die. Her mother sent her to train in Massachusetts with Jimmy Pedro and his father, a hard, close-knit judo family who gave her structure and did not let her quit. She has said she would not have survived without them. She had to testify at the trial while trying to train for international competition.
In 2010 she became world champion. At the London Olympics in 2012 she won the 78 kilogram class, the first American, man or woman, to win an Olympic gold medal in judo. She defended the title in Rio four years later. In between she started the Fearless Foundation, to help survivors of sexual abuse in sport.
After judo she moved into mixed martial arts, where she won world titles and, in 2025, a UFC championship. She has said the abuse does not define her, but she will not stop talking about it.