Olympiad XXX: 10 Out LGBT Athletes Win Medals

The London  Olympics are now over but Outsports.com is reporting that 10 LGBT athletes were able to win Olympic medals!

They are:

• GOLD: Seimone Augustus, USA, Basketball. The U.S. women's basketball team was arguably the most dominant team in any sport at these Olympics.
• GOLD: Carl Hester, Great Britain, Equestrian. Hester and his two teammates won Great Britain's first-ever Team Dressage gold. Hester finished fifth overall in the individual competition.
• GOLD: Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen, Netherlands, Field Hockey. The Dutch women beat Argentina, 2-0, in the gold medal match. Paumen and Dirkse van den Heuvel scored the team's two goals.
• GOLD: Megan Rapinoe, USA, Soccer. The Americans beat Japan, 2-1, in the gold medal match. Rapinoe had a key pass in the game. She also had two big goals in the semifinal match. Coach Pia Sundhage is also openly lesbian.
• SILVER: Judith Arndt, Germany, Cycling. Arndt was the first out athlete to win a medal in London, taking silver in the road race time trial.
• BRONZE: Edward Gal, Netherlands, Equestrian. Gal was on the bronze-medal team for Team Dressage; He finished ninth overall in the individual event.
• BRONZE: Lisa Raymond, USA, Tennis. Raymond and partner Mike Bryan won the mixed doubles bronze medal.

I love this observation by Cyd Zeigler, the co-founder of outsports.com:

If Team Gay was a country, it would have finished 31st overall with seven medals, tied with Mexico, Ethiopia and Georgia. They would have beaten the medal count of such countries as Jamaica, Ireland, Argentina and India. They would have finished 21st overall for most golds (four), tied with Iran, Jamaica, Czech Republic and Korea.

Go Team Gay! See you in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016!

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.