Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Only 14 Olympic Athletes Are Officially Out As LGBT

Seimone Augustus is the only out lesbian on the USA Women's basketball team
and one of only 14 openly gay or lesbian athletes at the 2012 Olympics

According to Pink News, there are only 14 openly LGBT athletes at the London Olympics who are officially out and willing to be named by the media:

The athletes known to be gay or lesbian are: Matthew Mitcham (Australia, diving); Edward Gal (Netherlands, equestrian); Lisa Raymond (U.S., doubles tennis); Judith Arndt(Germany, cycling); Seimone Augustus (U.S., basketball); Imke Duplitzer (Germany, fencing); Megan Rapinoe (U.S. soccer); Marilyn Agliotti (Netherlands, field hockey); Maartje Paumen (Netherlands, field hockey); Natalie Cook (Australia, beach volleyball); Alexandra Lacrabère (France, handball); Jessica Landström (Sweden, soccer); and Carole Péon (France, triathlon) and Jessica Harrison (France, triathlon).


There are 12,602 athletes competing in the Games. If just 1% of them were LGBT, that would be 126 athletes. Buzzfeed has a photo essay featuring all 14 out athletes.

It's crazy that Lisa Raymond is the only out LGBT tennis player. Hello, Samantha Stosur, Francesca "Frankie" Schiavone, and Feliciano Lopez?

One would think as more members of the Millennial generation are competing thetaboos about being an out athlete would start to diminish, but one has to remember that issues of national representation and commerce potentially play a role in this decision as well.

1 comment:

Rodney said...

On the other hand: http://michael-tresfabsweetie.blogspot.com/2012/07/grindr-crashes-in-london-due-to-olympic.html?zx=d141cb2fb011d89a

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