There have been 39 gay Olympic figure skaters. Here’s the list - Outsports

Contents:

• THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS
• IAN THORPE REVEALS HE IS GAY
• TOM DALEY ‘CREDIBLY PROUD TO SAY I AM GAY AND AN OLYMPIC CHAMPN’

THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 39 GAY OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATERS. HERE’S THE LIST

When, still damp om the pool after wng his long-awaed gold medal, Brish diver Tom Daley clared his pri at beg a gay man and also an Olympic champn, there were tears and full hearts across the while there was ltle shock – Daley has been a vol advote of LGBTQ+ rights for years – there was a joy and ease to his pronouncement that was new. Photograph: WPA/Getty Imag“When I heard – I’m gog to get emotnal here – when I heard Tom Daley talk the prs nference about beg a proud gay man, and an Olympic gold medalist, I jt thought: y, absolutely y. Photograph: Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty ImagWomen outnumber men on the list of out gay athlet by about an 8-1 marg, wh women’s football alone acuntg for more than 40 out players.

Other gay male petors clu the New Zealand diver Anton Down-Jenks, the equtrians Edward Gal and Hans Peter Mrhoud om the Netherlands and the US x Julian the openg ceremony, the US basketball star Sue Bird, engaged to footballg legend Megan Rapoe, beamed as she bore the US flag. Ziegler rells a gay footballer tellg him about speakg to the cur Iranian football team about his sexualy, bee their untry homosexualy was illegal and punishable by ath. ”While Daley’s post-swim terview was voured by an overwhelmgly supportive public, other athlet risk their liv to be publicly out at the the Polish rower Katarzyna Zillmann won silver the quadple sculls she thanked her girliend, explag that she wanted to e her platform to help the LGBTQ+ muny Poland where there has been a risg wave of homophobia.

The Tongan swimmer Ami Fonua is openly gay and a natnal hero a untry were homosexualy is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years prison. There have been at least 39 gay men to pete figure skatg at the Wter Olympic Gam over the years, wh eight publicly out men petg 2022. LGBT historian Tony Scupham-Bilton has intified the men over the years, cludg a pastakg procs of intifyg who is gay.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OPENLY GAY OLYMPIANS

The gay men have bed for 15 Olympic medals, wh several ready to pete pairs figure skatg later this week. Five other gay athlet have been named as alternat. In addn to the 37 gay men, Timothy LeDuc is nonbary and will make their Olympic but this week.

IAN THORPE REVEALS HE IS GAY

Six of the gay men to pete have won Olympic gold medals:. Figure skater Adam Rippon will be one of two openly gay Amerins petg the 2018 Wter Olympics, a first for the U. But there’s one thg Rippon won’t be hidg – this year, he and etyle skier G Kenworthy will bee the first openly gay Amerin men to ever pete the Wter Olympics.

There are gay role mols at every turn – on televisn, on lol sports, and our muni. Even so, the last time that the Uned Stat sent an openly gay man to any Olympic Gam was 2004, when equtrians Guenter Seil and Robert Dover won bronze team drsage. It was Dover’s sixth time reprentg the Uned Stat at the Olympics; durg his send Gam, 1988, Dover me out, beg the first openly gay athlete to pete the morn Olympics.

"I wish that all gay athlet would e out all discipl – football, baseball, the Olympics, whatever, " Dover has said. Ined, by the time Dover me out on the ternatnal stage, was clear that gay athlet were petg and wng all levels of profsnal sports. ) And 1982, former Olympian Tom Wadll – who would die om AIDS at the height of the epimic five years later – helped found the first Gay Gam for LGBT athlet.

TOM DALEY ‘CREDIBLY PROUD TO SAY I AM GAY AND AN OLYMPIC CHAMPN’

But was more than a earlier when an openly gay athlete first performed the Olympic Gam. Curry acknowledged that the mors about his sexualy were te, but when journalists asked prient qutns betrayg the era’s misnceptns about homosexualy and masculy, Curry fought back: “I don’t thk I lack virily, and what other people thk of me don’t matter, ” he said.

” (It should be noted as well that homosexual acts were outlawed the U. There, a fiery, unflchg athletic spectacle, Curry abandoned his ual lively route of skips and hops for a stern technil masterpiece, makg him the first openly gay athlete to perform on the Olympic stage. LGBT journalists and historians, cludg Zeigler and Tony Scupham-Bilton, have talogued the many Olympians who were homosexual but peted a time before beg “out” was safe and acceptable.

German nner Otto Peltzer, for stance, peted the 1928 and 1932 Olympics, but was arrted by the Nazis 1934 for his homosexualy and was later sent to the ncentratn mps. Louganis was long mored to be gay, but didn’t e out publicly until the openg ceremoni of the 1994 Gay Gam: "Wele to the Gay Gam, ” Louganis said to the crowd.