Today, just a year after joining the synchronized swimming team, Nungaray says she not only has TNYA to thank for her rediscovery of her love of aquatic sports, but also for the safe space to “own and embrace differences.” Members of TNYA tell Bustle the same is true for them: The inclusivity that the team provides changed their lives for the better. It was Team New York Aquatics (TNYA), an LGBTQ-inclusive swim team, that reconnected Nungaray with her swimming roots as an adult. Seeing that representation would have “perhaps made it easier to own what I already very much knew about myself,” Nungaray tells Bustle. The Texas-born athlete says it would’ve helped her be more comfortable in her skin and come to terms with her sexuality during those formative years. Nungaray can easily pinpoint how queer representation could have helped her growing up. It was a search for what she describes as her “tribe” in New York City that eventually led her back to the sport that felt like home. She gave up swimming and water polo, sports she had found solace in since she was little, because she didn't see LGBTQ-inclusive swim teams or any LGBTQ representation in sports, and she felt “different” than her peers in her small town. While she had always known she was a lesbian, Kristina Nungaray didn’t fully come out to family and friends until adulthood, only doing so when she moved to New York City in 2014.
