Team LGBTQ+ was 199 athletes strong and won a combined 43 medals before the Closing Ceremony of the 2024 Olympics on Sunday. If we were a country, we’d have ranked seventh in the medal count. One third of all LGBTQ+ Olympians won a medal! Here are six top stories from the Paris Olympics.
Cindy Ngamba was the first athlete playing for the IOC Refugee Olympic team to win a medal since the team’s creation in 2015, as well as the first boxer to ever compete on the team. She has refugee status in the U.K. because her sexuality is illegal in her native Cameroon.
U.S. runner Nikki Hiltz and U.S. shot putter Raven Saunders both advanced to the finals of their events, though neither medaled. While Canadian soccer player Quinn was the first out nonbinary Olympian in the 2020 Games (and won gold), these two make history in their sports. Quinn played in Paris but the Canadian women’s soccer team lost in the quarterfinals.
U.S. track and field bicon Sha’Carri Richardson won a gold (4×100 m relay) and silver (100m) after being banned from the 2020 Games for cannabis use.
After a harrowing nine months in Russian detention, U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner wept while receiving the team’s gold medal as the national anthem of the country that brought her home with a hostage exchange played. Griner is one of seven out players on the U.S. basketball team—meaning more than half of the team of 12 is LGBTQ+.
Five-time Olympian Tom Daley went to Paris with his husband Dustin Lance Black (the filmmaker behind Milk, When We Rise, and Rustin) and their son. Besides diving, the British diver is known for knitting while cheering on others from the stands. Daley, 30, earned a silver medal in synchronized 10m platform diving and, after the games wrapped up, announced he’d be retiring from the sport.
Oh, women’s soccer, we love you. The U.S. took gold, Brazil silver, and Germany bronze, and between those three teams there are 14 out players. With eight out players, Brazil’s team is more than one third queer.
The Paralympics are up next and they’ll feature out LGBTQ+ athletes, too!
