GO FOR THE GOLD

Meet The Gay Athletes Heading To The Olympics, And A Few Who Almost Made It


The 2012 Summer Olympics start on July 27, and we’ve got our watchful eye on the queer athletes heading to London. Not many have publicly acknowledged their orientation, but the brave few who have get a gold medal in our book.

In the 2008 Beijing games, 11 athletes were out about their sexuality. So far, London doesn’t have nearly that many LGBT competitors. (A proposed Olympic Pride House in Clapham Common was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship.) Perhaps after the medals have been handed out and the pressure is off, a few more will feel comfortable stepping forward and representing the rainbow.

Click through to meet the out athletes of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games—and those who came close to getting the gold

Is there a queer Olympian we missed? Tell us in the comments.

 

Matthew Mitcham won the gold medal for the 10-meter platform dive back in the 2008 Games. Despite suffering several injuries over the past year, the Australian sweetie garnered perfect scores all seven judges during trials.

The out-and-proud champion, who returns this year to defend his title, is at ease with the spotlight his sexuality has sometimes put him in: “Until it is easy for sports people to come out without fear of persecution or fear of lost sponsorship income, or fear of being comfortable in the team environment, I don’t mind attention being brought to my sexuality in the hope that it might make other people feel more comfortable,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mitcham scores a Perfect 10 from us.

 

Megan Rapinoe, 27, is one of the world’s foremost female soccer players—she’s worshiped by fans the world over and even scored a major endorsement deal from Nike. This year, she joins the U.S. women’s soccer team for the London Games. But she recently made an even bolder move, coming out in Out: “I feel like sports in general are still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out. I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come out. People want— they need—to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol’ U.S. of A.”

Photo: Ampatent

 


Stephany Lee
was poised to be only openly lesbian wrestler on the U.S. Olympic women’s team, until she tested positive for marijuana last month and was kicked off the team. It’s quite an unfortunate turn of events. Lee was clean during the Olympic trials in April, and she recently married her partner, Brigg McDonald. She’s keeping her nose, er, lungs, clean and focusing on 2016.

Photo: Larry Slater

Josh Dixon hoped to be the first gay gymnast to represent the U.S. at the Olympics. While there are always whispers about gay men in gymnastics, none have tumbled forth into the media spotlight. Josh would have been an inspiring role model, especially because he is also bi-racial, half-black and half-Japanese.

Sadly, 2012 was not his year.:Dixon finished 13th in the Olympic trials in June—an impressive feat, but not enough to win him a coveted spot on the team. Hopefully, he’ll continue to compete and score a spot on the 2016 team, when he hopefully will be joined by some out teammates.

 


Seimone Augustus
isn’t just a top draft pick in the WBNA, she’s one of the few out lesbians in the league (We said out lesbians.)  A guard for the Minnesota Lynx, Augustus came out to The Advocate earlier this year when she got engaged to fiancee LaTaya Varner. (The two were co-grand marshals of the Twin Cities Pride Parade last month.) When she joins the U.S. women’s basketball in London, Augustus will be showing off her skills—and her many tattoos, including one on her Achilles’ heel. “Pain must soothe me. Maybe at that time the pain was helping me overcome something,” she told ESPN. “Relationship issues, maybe? I was angry about something, but I can’t remember what it was. Going through that kind of pain, it must have been to help me deal with a relationship.”

Right wing Marilyn Agliotti took Netherlands’ national field hockey team to Beijing in 2008, when they won the silver.   She was born and raised in South Africa but in 2001 came to the Netherlands, where she met her wife. Her new home is one of the most gay-friendly in the world, but passions for field hockey lean toward the conservative: “The hockey world imposes high expectations. Feelings that don’t conform, they don’t want to hear about,” she told Heroes magazine. “They’re at peace with lesbian players as long as they remain in the background.”

She presents a positive example for gay athletes and encourages others to come out as well: “Problems arise because groups and people don’t understand each other not understand. What is more beautiful than discovering something new, learning from it and, there, better understanding it? “
Photo: McSmit

Keelin Godsey, 28, failed to qualify for the London Games in the hammer throw but, as a highly visible trans athlete who’s helped raise awareness and spur the creation of trans-inclusive policies, he’s accomplished more than most Olympians.Godsey postponed hormones or surgery while he trained for the Olympic trials, meaning he competed in the women’s division. Even knowing he didn’t make the team, he kept a bright attitude: “I’ve still done more than most people that are trans have. I’ve still competed at a level that most people haven’t. I don’t want to let not making a team be what brings that down.”

 That’s the definition of good sportsmanship.
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