Record breaking games

Like many card-carrying gay women I have always loved sports. I have spoken before about my love of Steffi Graf – and in my youth played a lot of tennis and hockey. As a young girl, the Olympics were always a high point. Every 4 years, being able to see all these athletes I admired in one place. From the excitement of the opening ceremony (my personal favourite was London 2012 – who can forget the Queen jumping from a plane and David Beckham looking so handsome carrying the flame?!) to being able to watch swimming, tennis, hockey all day long - bliss!

As the Tokyo Olympics kick off I am even more excited as this year there’s a record number of out gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary athletes. This is almost double the number of ‘out’ athletes that were at Rio in 2016 (56) and only 23 in London in 2012. This actually makes it greater than the number of ‘out’ athletes in all Summer Olympics combined. This record breaking year will also see the first transgender person taking part, as Laurel Hubbard will represent New Zealand in weightlifting.

The US has the most ‘out’ athletes with more than 30, followed by Canada (16) and Britain (16). Top of the podium of best represented sports is football, followed by basketball and rugby. In light of this, it’s not surprising therefore that gay women outnumber gay men by 8 to 1.

Like most LGBTQ history, the history behind gay participants in the games is not glorious. Starting with Otto Peltzer, a German runner, who took part in the 1928 and 1932 Games, only to be arrested in 1934 for homosexuality and sent to a concentration camp. More recently there have been athletes who have only come out after the games – the American diver Greg Lougainis for example, who came out publicly in 1994 at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games stating: “It’s great to be out and proud”.

There have been a handful of athletes who came out before the Olympics. French tennis player Amelie Mauresmo was among some of the first openly out female athletes to compete in Sydney in 2000. The year before her participation, journalists questioned her sexuality after an opponent called her “half a man” for showing up to a match with her girlfriend. All credit to Amelie for talking very matter-of-factly about her sexuality and shutting down the debate to talk about tennis. Credit too to her sponsor Nike, who designed her clothes to display her strength rather than hide it. She went on to win silver in the 2004 games.

Of course I can’t forget Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh; British hockey players who made history by being the first same-sex married couple to win a gold medal together and the first British married couple to win gold since 1920.?

It’s fantastic that these athletes are able to compete as their authentic selves, and it shows how far the world of sport has come in terms of inclusion. However there is still a way to go. Not least of all in Japan in terms of LGBTQ rights – same sex marriage has not been legalised, there is limited recognition of same sex couples and protection from discrimination in the workplace. Nonetheless I look forward to supporting my LGBTQ brothers and sisters and hope that we have some future gold medallists!

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