Kimberley Daniels is at the Tokyo Olympics to judge canoeing slalom, where her daughter Haley is representing Canada in an event newly introduced at the Games as a bid for greater gender equality.

But now Daniels worries she may steal the spotlight herself with the attention she is drawing as an openly transgender Olympic judge.

"I guess I am a pioneer here today. I was really hoping to come out and be quiet," she said at the Kasai canoe slalom course in Tokyo. "My goal was always to be seen as a woman, now I have to see myself as a transgender woman and that is also a big step."