When the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing take place February 4–20, at least 32 out LGBTQ athletes will be among the elite competitors. This is a record-breaking number for Team LGBTQ+, which for the 2018 Winter Olympics had 15 publicly out athletes. Several have already made headlines.
Gus Kenworthy previously was a member of Team USA, but he was actually born in the U.K. and will be on Team Great Britain at this year’s Olympics. (His mother is British, while his father is American). Look for this talented skier, who won a silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Team Canada will feature figure skater Eric Radford, who was the first openly gay man to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics. (Fellow figure skater Brian Boitano of San Francisco also won gold, at the 1988 Winter Olympics, but came out publicly later.) Radford is married to Spanish ice dancer Luis Fenero.
Timothy LeDuc of Team USA is the first out nonbinary athlete to compete in a Winter Olympics. The figure skater and partner Ashley Cain-Gribble recently won their second U.S. National Championship.
Another groundbreaker is Amber Glenn, who identifies as both bisexual and pansexual. She is yet another world class figure skater.
Ireen Wüst of Team Netherlands has already earned a record-breaking number of Olympic medals in women’s speedskating and will likely add to her collection. Wüst came out as bisexual over a decade ago.
So, as you cheer for Team USA while watching this year’s Winter Olympics, root for Team LGBTQ+ too!
https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/
Published on January 27, 2022
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