At least 175 LGBTQ+ athletes competing at Paris 2024 Olympics
LGBTQ+ athletes have become ever-more-visible at the Olympic Games but is the progression substantial enough as Paris 2024 kicks off? Well, the good news is there are a lot of LGBTQ+ Olympians this year.
The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, which were held in 2021 due to the pandemic, included a historic number of LGBTQ+ athletes: 186, who, if grouped together, would have ranked 11th in the medal table.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, 36 out LGBTQ+ athletes competed and they would have been placed 12th, above Japan and Italy, OutSports reported.
The outlet has also found that there will be at least 175 out LGBTQ+ athletes competing at the Paris 2024 Games. Read on to meet just a few of the main stars going for gold…
Breanna Stewart, USA, basketball
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) power forward is part of the US team. She won gold medals at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.
Stewart is married to former WNBA and EuroLeague Spanish professional basketball player Marta Xargay. Within 48 hours of her winning Olympic gold in 2021, their first child was born.
Brittney Griner, USA, basketball
Brittney Griner, one of the most recognisable names on this list, made headlines when she was imprisoned in Russia in 2022.
She married Cherelle Watson five years ago and the couple are now expecting a child. Griner had twins with ex-wife and fellow WNBA player Glory Johnson.
Campbell Harrison, Australia, rock climbing
Campbell Harrison will be scaling the rock climbing wall for Australia in Paris. “This was the culmination of more than a decade of blood, sweat, tears and utter heartbreak,” he wrote on Instagram to announce that he’d qualified for the Games.
“The pressure I felt going into this final was physically painful, to the point where I didn’t know that I could stand it. I’ve never cried before, because this accomplishment is of a magnitude I could never truly comprehend. I’m going to the Olympics… to my queer community, may those who detest us for ever f*ck off.”
Chelsea Gray, USA, basketball
Nicknamed The Point Gawd, Chelsea Nichelle Gray, will be looking to help the US secure their eighth straight gold medal.
Gray married Tipesa Moorer in 2019 and four years later, the basketball pro announced that she and her wife were expecting their first child.
Dan Jervis, Great Britain, swimming
Dan Jervis will be representing Team GB in the pool. Jervis came out publicly as gay in June 2022, just before the Commonwealth Games in which he won the silver medal in the men’s 1500m freestyle.
ARyes will be on the Welshman after he won two gold medals at the 2023 British Swimming Championships.
Diana Taurasi, USA, basketball
Diana Taurasi is another pro star. She has won gold at the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics. She has also won three World Cups gold and almost exactly seven years ago became the WNBA all-time leading scorer. In June 2021, became the first player to surpass 9,000 points.
Taurasi married former Phoenix Mercury teammate Penny Taylor in 2017 after eight years of dating, and the couple welcomed their first child in 2018.
In 2021, Taurasi played a winner-take-all game and announced in a post-match interview: “Hold it in babe, I’m coming.” She arrived by her wife’s side in time for the birth of their second child.
Emma Twigg, New Zealand, rowing
Having finished fourth in both 2012 and 2016, New Zealand rower Emma Twigg finally won gold in the woman’s single sculls at the Tokyo Olympics.
Twigg married Charlotte Mizzi in 2020 with some of her fellow rowers as bridesmaids. The couple welcomed their first child in 2022. She has become a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ athletes.
Jewell Loyd, USA, basketball
Jewell Loyd is looking to win her second Olympic gold medal after being part of the winning team in Tokyo. She joined Seattle Storm in 2015, going on to win the WNBA championship in 2018 and 2020.
Based on their Instagram posts, it seems Loyd is dating Estonian basketball star Téa Adams.
Nikki Ayers, Australia, para rower
Nikki Ayers is an Australian paralympic rower who made her Olympic debut in the PR3 Mix 4+ in 2020 in Tokyo. She was a successful rugby union player until a knee injury in 2016. She tore a main artery and developed compartment syndrome which led to 16 surgeries. Still wanting to compete in sports, Ayers turned to rowing.
Ayers is an AIS Thrive with Pride Ambassador, a programme that supports rainbow athletes and allies by driving LGBTQ+ inclusion initiatives within Australian sporting communities.
Quinn, Canada, football
Canadian footballer Quinn became the first out transgender non-binary Olympic athlete to not just compete but win a gold medal, when the Canucks beat Sweden in a penalty shootout in Tokyo.
They came out as non-binary and transgender in 2020, adopting their surname as a mononym.
Robbie Manson, New Zealand, rowing
Robbie Manson’s first Olympic appearance was at the London Games in 2012. The World Cup winner came out as gay 10 years ago, becoming one of the first out LGBT people in rowing from New Zealand.
In 2016, at the Rio Olympics, he was one of just 11 gay or bi men among more than 6,100 male athletes. Writing in Outsports, Manson revealed he had turned to OnlyFans for extra financial support to fund his Olympic hopes. However, he did clarify that his presence on the site would be “anything but adult entertainment”.
Sha’Carri Richardson, USA, track
Bisexual track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson rose to fame in 2019 when she broke the 100m collegiate record, which made her one of the 10 fastest women in history – at the age of just 19. In 2021, she was suspended from the sport after testing positive for marijuana, barring her from the Tokyo Olympics.
Richardson has been open about her sexuality, citing her partner’s support as a factor for dying her hair bright orange when competing.
“My girlfriend actually picked my colour,” she told USA Today. “She said it spoke to her, the fact that it was so loud and vibrant, and that’s who I am.”
Tom Daley, GB, synchronised diving
One of Britain’s best-known Olympians ever, Tom Daley is putting down the knitting needles and climbing back on the diving board for the synchronised diving in Paris. The 2024 Olympics will be Daley’s fifth Games and, reportedly, his last.
He and partner Matty Lee won the gold medal in the men’s synchronised 10m event three years ago. Daley won an individual bronze medal in 2012 and another, this time with Daniel Goodfellow, in Rio four years later.
A third bronze came in the individual competition in 2021.
In Paris, the Team GB golden boy will be competing with new diving partner Noah Williams, who joined Daley for the first time at the British National Diving Cup in March, where they won gold.
Daley came out in 2013, posting a video to YouTube, revealing that he was in a relationship with a man. He married American screen writer and director Dustin Lance Black in 2017, and they have two sons.
You can read all of our Paris Olympics 2024 coverage here.
