Olympic gay
Meet the LGBTQ+ Athletes Participating in the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games
Openly LGBTQ+ Athletes Competing in Beijing (organized alphabetically and by sport)
This list reflects information compiled by Outsports and LGBT historian Tony Scupham-Bilton. The full list from Outsports can be found here.
Biathlon
Megan Banks (@megan.bankes) is an openly gender non-conforming biathlete representing Team Canada who uses she/they pronouns. After coming out as gay in an Instagram post in 2020, Bankes hopes to show younger athletes “that they can be whomever they are, or want to be, without discrimination.” They are competing in their first Olympics this year and have previously competed in several World Championships.
Curling 🥌
Bruce Mouat (@BruceMouat) is a curler for Team Amazing Britain competing in his first Olympic Games. Mouat has boasted an memorable pre-Olympics career, recently finishing first in the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Championship amongst other competitions.
Figure Skating ⛸
Filippo Ambrosini is an out figure skater acting for Team Italy. The 2022 Olympic Games mark his first time competing on this global stage, previously
DearPresidentPutin,
You've set the stage for a recent event at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics -- a fight over LGBT rights. The planet will tune in to see how it plays out. Will it be a win for your cynical scapegoating of minority sexualities? Or will human rights make a comeback, busting reveal your Olympic-sized closet?
I hate to destroy it to you, Vlad. You've made a poor selection of venue for this one, because the Olympics are really, really gay.
I'm not talking figure skating, or the two-man luge. I'm talking about the great Olympics of the ancient Greeks, that flashpoint of the civilized society that burned for a thousand years. It was gayer than you could possibly imagine.
Take a seat in the stands, Vlad. You'll note first off that the Amazing Olympic tradition would look to your modern eyes... how should I deposit this?... like a '70s porno. The spectators -- all male. The athletes -- all male, oiled up and totally in the buff. (Fun fact: We get our word "gym" from gymnos, which means naked.)
Nothing lgbtq+ about that, you say? Yes, former comrade, we realize you're not ashamed to show us your bared torso on horseback. (And btw, not horrible for a middle-aged straight guy.) But th
LGBTQ athletes take their marks on the track at the Paris Olympic Games
This year's U.S. Olympic team has a star-studded cast of LGBTQ athletes headed to Paris.
At least 29 competitors are prepared to receive on the international games, according to a database compiled by LGBTQ news outlet OutSports.
These athletes are just a handful of the LGBTQ representation to expect at the Olympic Games. OutSports recorded at least 151 LGBTQ athletes representing countries around the world that are set to take up the competition in Paris.
For the U.S., that representation will glow in sports across the athletic spectrum -- from basketball to rowing to rugby -- putting a spotlight on a community facing growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment across the globe.
"LGBTQ athletes have likely competed in the Olympics and Paralympics since the very first games in history, " said LGBTQ advocacy team GLAAD in a statement. "Today, more athletes than ever are comfortable organism out as their true, authentic selves and are embraced and supported by fans, fellow competitors, and sponsors."
On the track -- and in the field -- you'll locate some newly minted Olympians to view and som
Three years ago, I woke up ahead of the alarm I’d set for an early morning basketball game — early for me, not so much for the athletes in Tokyo — and turned on my television while I made some coffee. Women’s Foil was on. I don’t know what Foil is — hell, I’m still not sure what Foil is — but it was on, I was up, and I had time before basketball started so I settled into watch.
I didn’t know what was happening on my screen. I didn’t grasp how fencers scored or what made the fencers’ helmets soft up red or green. But the more I watched, the more I gleaned about the sport. The more I watched, the more invested I became. By the end, I was yelling at my television, cheering for competitors who were strangers minutes ago, like I’d been watching Foil my entire life.
For me, that’s part of the beauty of the Olympics: the chance to discover something modern and to completely get swept up in it. The Olympics are a chance to detect athletes, who have been perfecting their craft in relative obscurity, and finally give get their moment to shine. Increasingly, those athletes getting that moment in the sun are queer. According to Outspo