A record number of athletes openly identifying as LGBTQ+ are competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, a massive leap during a competition that organizers have pushed to center around inclusion and diversity.
There are 191 athletes publicly saying they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary who are participating in the Games, according to Outsports, an organization that compiles a database of openly queer Olympians. The vast majority of the athletes are women.
That number has quashed the previous record of 186 out athletes counted at the COVID-19-delayed Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, and the count is only expected to grow at future Olympics.
“More and more people are coming out,” said Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports. “They realize it’s important to be visible because there’s no other way to get representation.”
I imagine at least a half of the countries participating in the Olympics being morbidly bad at LGBTQ+ rights and that a biggoted campaign against a sportsperson can cost them their entire career or life adds to the reasons why there’re more of them we don’t see. They phut Muh Mutherland to shame! is a big target to put on someone’s back if not for the state, but for it’s most reactionary citizen.
I don’t know if this specific group has the same distribution of LGBTQ+ folks as the general population, but as a second thought I’m sure the amount of persons being aware of their own sexuality and gender identity or learning them can top their own nation’s metrics because of the exposure to the international sports scene.