Team LGBTQ+ Weren't Just Out And Proud, They Also Made History At The Winter Olympics
Outsports tallied at least 36 total queer athletes, a record at the Winter Olympics, with Team LGBTQ+ winning nine medals, four of them gold.
That means Team LGBTQ+ would've been 12th overall in the medal standings if they were a country, despite only having comparatively few athletes.The country with the most queer athletes was Canada with 10 queer athletes, while 5 competed for America and 4 for Great Britain.To break down all the queer excellence at the games, here are the queer highlights of the 2022 Winter Olympics.A two-time national champion, Timothy LeDuc made history as the first nonbinary athlete to compete at an Olympic Games.While they were not really in the race for a medal, they walked away with an 8th place finish, joining the other American pairs team in the top 10.With their place in the Olympics, the conversation around pronouns, inclusion, and broader queer representation and acceptance sparked up around the world and allowed some queer excellence to shine across every corner of the globe.The US and Canadian Olympic hockey rivalry is one that has continued for decades, with each team trading off the gold and silver medals each time.
This year, the US failed to defend their gold from 2018, losing to Canada 3-2.Still, both teams had their share of queer teammates with Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark, Melodie Daoust, Brianne Jenner, Jamie Lee Rattray, Jill Saulnier, and Micah Zandee-Hart as the gold-winning out Canadian athletes.
Alex Carpenter was the sole out American on their hockey team.In the bronze medal match, Finland's lone queer player,Ronja Savolainen, helped them win the third place medal.Queer ice dance legend Guillaume Cizeron and his partner Gabriella Papadakis made a triumphant return to the.
