LGBT+ Olympians would tie Brazil on leaderboard if they were a country
Tom Daley, Amandine Buchard and Carl Hester are among the several out LGBT+ athletes to have won medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. (Getty/Clive Rose/Franck FIFE/AFP/Julian Finney)
If LGBT+ Olympic athletes were a country, they would be tied with Brazil and Switzerland on the leaderboard for the 2020 Tokyo games.
There are at least 168 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer and non-binary athletes participating at the Olympics this year, according to Outsports. This is a major step forward for LGBT+ representation at the worldwide games, and it’s three times the number of out athletes that took part in the 2016 Rio Games.
OutSports has also been dedicatedly tracking the number of medals accrued by all the queer Olympians. The publication explained it would be tracking these athletes as though they were “on one team representing one country” and dubbed the group “Team LGBTQ”.
If Team LGBTQ did exist, OutSports said it would be ranked fourteenth overall at the 2020 Tokyo Games. This would tie Team LGBTQ with Brazil and Switzerland as of Tuesday (27 July).
Who is leading Team LGBTQ at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games?
Taking home the gold is, of course, Team Great Britain’s Tom Daley. Daley won his first-ever Olympic gold medal Monday (26 July) alongside his men’s synchronised diving partner Matty Lee. This was Daley’s fourth time appearing at the Olympic games, and it’s his second since he came out in 2013.
French judoka Amandine Buchard won a silver medal on Sunday (25 July) in the women’s -52kg competition. The Associated Press reported last month that six French athletes, including Buchard, came out as part of the LGBT+ community for a documentary. Buchard shared that she was “very scared” to speak about her sexuality when she was young, and she described how she “cried a lot and shut myself away” as a result.
OutSports reported that three members of the USA women’s softball team – Ally Carda, Amanda Chidester and Haylie McCleney – also took home a silver medal after being defeated by Japan in the gold medal match.
Canadian softball team members Larissa Franklin and Joey Lye proudly took home bronze medals after a narrow loss to the Mexican team.
Team Great Britain equestrian Carl Hester earned a bronze medal after his sublime performance Tuesday (27 July). He was one of the only openly gay Olympians competing for Team GB in 2012 when he helped his team take home top place at the London games.
