Out LGBTQ athletes won dozens of medals
at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
According to LGBT blog Outsports,
at least 182 out athletes from about 30 nations participated in the
Tokyo Games.
(Related: Tom
Daley wins gold at Tokyo Olympics; says he's proud to be a gay man.)
The number of out athletes in Tokyo is
more than three times the number who competed in the 2016 Summer
Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Dubbed “Team LGBTQ” by Outsports,
the out athletes won 32 team and individual medals, including 11
gold, 12 silver, and 9 bronze. The athletes would rank 11th
if they competed as their own country.
“The presence and performance of
these out athletes has been a huge story at these Games,"
Outsports
founder Cyd Zeigler said in an email. "30% of all the out
LGBTQ Olympians in Tokyo won a medal, which means they didn’t just
show up, they also performed at a very high level.”
(Related: Olympic
boxer Nesthy Petecio dedicates silver medal to LGBTQ community.)
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed
a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.