Over the past two weeks, more than 180 openly LGBTQ+ athletes have taken to the tracks, pools and fields in Japan’s capital, according to the website Outsports, triple that of Rio in 2016, illustrating a surge in confidence among LGBTQ+ sportspeople.
If Team LGBTQ+ had competed as a country, its haul of 32 medals – 11 golds, 12 silvers and nine bronze – would have ranked seventh, above the Netherlands and below Australia, according to an analysis by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
As the Olympics drew to a close on Sunday, with attention shifting to the start of the Paralympics on August 24, many have praised the Games for raising the profile, and acceptance, of LGBTQ+ people globally. “Having that sort of representation is so important,”