Rousey-Tinted Glasses: Why Olympic champ Kayla Harrison is contemplating MMA

Four years ago, Middletown, Ohio native Kayla Harrison made history as the first American judoka to win a gold medal at the Olympics. She defeated hometown hero Gemma Gibbons, and did so with a dislocated knee and the harrowing experience of the sexual abuse she had endured as a child.

The Harrison that arrived in Rio bears little resemblance to the one who appeared in London at age 22. The judo coach who had abused her for three years when she was a pre-teen is behind bars and the thoughts of suicide no longer accompany her every waking hour. Yet even though time is supposed to heal all wounds, it was unable to remove the emotional lacerations inflicted upon her heart.

“Sexual abuse is such a difficult subject because it does things to the mind and to the development of a young person that you can’t really see,” Harrison told ABC News. “There are no scars on me, there’s no injury, you can’t physically see that I’m wounded. But when you’re 10 or 12 years old, and you go through something like that, it changes you. It changes you as a person.”

No longer a novice, Harrison is a champion back to defend her historic win. While London 2012 was a story about redemption and the determination of the downtrodden, Rio 2016 is Harrison’s shot at affirmation, a chance to cement her legacy before she lays down her competitive gi for good.

The judoka is at a crossroads in her competitive career.

While becoming the first American judoka to defend her historic gold medal win is Harrison’s …

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