Queer and trans athletes are already cleaning up at this year’s Olympic Games. Just how well is the LGBTQ+ community being represented in Tokyo? Well, if all openly queer and trans Olympians were considered a single country, we’d be ranked 11th in total medals as of July 28, according to Outsports.
These exhilarating results make sense considering more LGBTQ+ athletes are competing at this year’s games than in any before. A record 168 openly gay competitors are in Tokyo this year, which is more than double the 2016 count, per the LGBTQ+ news site.
The U.S. has the highest number of queer athletes with 30 competitors, followed by Canada with 16 and Britain with 15. (It’s worth noting track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson, who was controversially disqualified for testing positive for THC earlier this month, is openly queer and would have added to the U.S. tally.)
LGBTQ+ Olympians are doing more than showing up. We’re showing out, too. Two openly gay Olympians have already won gold, including Tom Daley, who took home his first-ever gold medal on Monday alongside diving partner Matty Lee on Monday. Daley, who is married to screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, gave an impassioned speech to LGBTQ+ youth following the victory.
“I hope that any young LGBT person out there can see that no matter how alone you feel right now you are not alone,” he said during a press conference.
WNBA star Stefanie Dolson is Team America’s second queer gold medalist. The Chicago Sky center made history on Wednesday evening, competing alongside the U.S. women’s basketball team in the inaugural 3-on-3 competition. Dolson’s teammates were Las Vegas Aces point guard Kelsey Plum and Dallas Wings shooting guard Allisha Gray.
Queer athletes have already won six silver medals as well, per Outsports. Those names include American softball players Ally Carda, Amanda Chidester, and Haylie McCleney, as well as swimmer Erica Sullivan. There’s also French judoist Amandine Buchard and Polish rower Katarzyna Zillmann.
Zillmann effectively came out publicly moments after winning silver in the quadruple sculls, as Outsports reports. The Olypian grabbed a microphone from a reporter and thanked her girlfriend before telling the press: “The conversations with you after the medal race were not groundbreaking for me. I’ve already talked about it in interviews before, but for some reason, it wasn’t published.”
As for bronze medalists, there are three: Canadian softball players Larissa Franklin and Joey Lye, as well as British equestrian Carl Hester, who is competing in team dressage.
The sudden rise in openly LGBTQ+ Olympians has been deemed a “Rainbow Wave” by the Associated Press. “What I hope that means is that even outside of sports, kids are raised not just under the assumption that they are heterosexual,” American skateboarder Alexis Sablone, who placed fourth in street skateboarding on Monday, told the AP.
The spotlight on queer and trans Olympians coincides with a broader trend of LGBTQ+ athletes feeling more comfortable speaking publicly about their identtites. Earlier this month, hockey player, Luke Prokop, became the first active NHL player to come out. A month earlier, Las Vegas Raider Carl Nassib publicly declared he is gay, becoming the first active NFL athlete to do so. (Michael Sam, who came out ahead of the 2014 NFL draft, was never signed to a team.)
Here’s wishing Team LGBTQ best of luck for the remainder of the Olympic games. May we also recommend this intersex-inclusive Pride symbol as the team flag?
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