Ariella Käslin (anglicised Kaeslin; born 11 October 1987) is a Swiss former

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

. She won all five gold medals at the 2007 Swiss National Championships,"Käslin Counting Down to Beijing"
John Crumlish, ''International Gymnast,'' November 12, 2007 and has represented Switzerland at the World Championships in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, and was a medalist on the World Cup circuit. Käslin represented Switzerland at the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

, where she placed 18th in the individual all-around final and 5th in the vault event final. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, Käslin was voted by the Swiss public as "Swiss Sportswoman of the Year"; only cyclist

Tony Rominger Tony Rominger (born 27 March 1961 in Vejle, Denmark) is a Swiss former professional road racing cyclist who won the Vuelta a España in 1992, 1993 and 1994 and the Giro d'Italia in 1995. He began cycling late, allegedly spurred by competition wi ...

(1992, 1993, 1994) had previously achieved three consecutive "Sportsman of the Year" awards in Switzerland. In 2009, she became European Champion on the vault, as well as taking home a bronze medal in the All Around final. She then followed up this success with a silver medal on the vault at the 2009 World Championships. On 11 July 2011, Käslin announced her retirement from competition. In April 2021, Käslin

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

. Regarding her decision to come out publicly, she remarked: "I then understood that as a public figure, I also had to come out publicly, otherwise I would never be able to live my love for a woman in complete freedom. But I'm also scared."

References

External links

Ariella Käslin homepage"Gespräch mit Ariella Käslin"
2013 interview (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaslin, Ariella 1987 births Living people Swiss female artistic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Switzerland European champions in gymnastics LGBT gymnasts Swiss lesbians Lesbian sportswomen Swiss LGBT sportspeople Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 21st-century Swiss LGBT people Sportspeople from Lucerne 21st-century Swiss women