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 think we might be well past the days of honest natural sport. Thats not me saying we should be cheating, but trying to get back to that isnt possible, we have to figure this out moving forward not just for women or trans people but for all the other ways science affects sports.
Its not natural that someone with enough money for the best training science can provide them is almost guaranteed to be in the top percentiles of their sport.
What’s interesting is that this has been true since at least roman times, with funding going towards training and gear, even if the participants themselves might not be wealthy.