At the least 144 LGBTQ athletes will head to Paris for the 2024 Summer time Video games, with a file variety of male Olympians taking part, in response to LGBTQ sports activities web site OutSports.
On the final Summer time Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021, there have been a minimum of 186 opponents, however the checklist initially began at 121, in response to OutSports co-founder Cyd Zeigler, who mentioned the quantity grew because the site- ul sports activities information discovered that further athletes out in public.
Zeigler mentioned he anticipates the variety of athletes named to the 2024 checklist will improve as nicely.
“I've already heard within the final 24 hours from about half a dozen athletes that I didn't learn about,” he mentioned. He added that the brand new additions embody extra male athletes and will probably be added to the Outsports problem subsequent week.
This yr, a minimum of 18 male athletes taking part within the Summer time Olympics are publicly introduced. Zeigler mentioned equestrian, an Olympic sport by which eight LGBTQ males take part, “has lengthy been a pacesetter on this males's house.”
The overwhelming majority of athletes on the checklist of queer Olympians, greater than 120, are ladies. Lesbians and different queer ladies make up a minimum of half of two groups: the US ladies's basketball crew, the place six of its 12 gamers are lower, and the Australian ladies's soccer crew, the place a minimum of 9 of its 18 gamers are lower.
“Given what number of lesbians there are in elite ladies's sports activities, it was only a extra welcoming place than males's sports activities for a very long time, simply due to the large proportion of elite-level athletes, particularly in Western tradition, who’re LGBTQ in ladies's sports activities,” Zeigler mentioned.
Nevertheless, Zeigler mentioned that on the planet of male sports activities, the place LGBTQ athletes previously could have been uncomfortable popping out, extra male athletes are realizing that their friends are extra accepting than they may have thought.
“That's the most important factor that individuals are lastly beginning to see, that regardless of the stupidity that goes on in some males's locker rooms, it doesn't mirror an actual degree of acceptance. The extent of acceptance is increased than what they assume,” he mentioned.
A few of the most high-profile homosexual athletes at this yr's Olympics embody British diver Tom Daley, observe star Sha'Carri Richardson and nonbinary trans runner Nikki Hiltz.
Final month on the U.S. Olympic trials, Hiltz punched her ticket to Paris, operating the second-fastest time ever amongst Individuals within the ladies's 1,500 meters.
In a post-race interview with NBC Sports activities, Hiltz, 29, mentioned the race had which means past setting the meet file.
“That is greater than simply me. … I wished to run this one for my neighborhood,” they mentioned. “All you LGBT folks, sure you introduced house my final hundred [meters]. I might solely really feel the love and assist.”
Hiltz will probably be considered one of a minimum of three non-binary athletes taking part in Paris, in response to Zeigler. They are going to be joined by American rugby participant Kris Thomas and Canadian soccer star Quinn, who helped Canada win a gold medal on the Tokyo Video games and made historical past within the course of by changing into the primary overtly trans athlete to earn a Olympic medal.
Whereas Zeigler mentioned some folks imagine banning trans ladies from competing within the ladies's division for sure sports activities has an impact on the variety of LGBTQ athletes within the Olympics, he mentioned he doesn't imagine the bans have an effect on the general quantity.
Whereas the variety of athletes on the OutSports roster will improve, some adjustments to the competitors might additionally contribute to fewer LGBTQ athletes competing. The elimination of softball as an Olympic sport, a sport that had eight LGBTQ ladies on the Tokyo Video games, for instance, had an impact on the numbers.
Zeigler additionally identified that Sweden's ladies's soccer crew, which “surprisingly” didn’t qualify for Paris, had 4 LGBTQ gamers in Tokyo.
Girls's soccer, throughout all taking part nations, is the strangest sport at this yr's Olympics. Brazil's crew has eight athletes out this yr, whereas Australia's roster has 9 – which Zeigler mentioned “may be essentially the most LGBTQ folks we've ever seen on an Olympic crew.”
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