At least 191 LGBTQ athletes to compete in Paris Olympics

At least 191 out LGBTQ athletes will be in Paris for the 2024 Summer Games, according to the LGBTQ sports site OutSports.

This surpasses the record-setting Tokyo Olympics, held in the summer of 2021, where there were at least 186 out competitors.

This year, a record 20 male athletes participating in the summer Olympics are publicly out. Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler said equestrian, an Olympic sport with eight LGBTQ men participating, has “long been a leader in this space of out men.”

The vast majority of athletes on the list of queer Olympians, nearly 170, are women. Lesbians and other queer women represent more than half of at least two teams: the U.S. women’s basketball team, where seven of the 12 players are out, and the Australian women’s soccer team, where at least 12 of the 18 players are out.

“Given how many lesbians are in women’s elite level sports, it’s just been a more welcoming place than men’s sports for a long time, just because of the huge percentage of elite level athletes, particularly in Western culture, who are LGBTQ in women’s sports,” Zeigler said.

However, Zeigler said that in the world of men’s sports, where LGBTQ athletes in the past might have been uncomfortable coming out, more male athletes are realizing that their teammates are more accepting than they may have assumed.

“That’s the biggest thing that people are finally starting to see, that despite the nonsense that goes on in some men’s locker rooms, it doesn’t reflect an actual level of acceptance. The level of acceptance is higher than what they think,” he said.

Some of the highest profile queer athletes at this year’s Olympic Games include British diver Tom Daley, track star Sha’Carri Richardson and trans nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz.

At the U.S. Olympic Trials last month, Hiltz punched their ticket to Paris, running the second fastest time ever of any American in the women’s 1,500-meter race.

In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Hiltz, 29, said the race had significance beyond setting the meet record.

“This is bigger than just me. … I wanted to run this one for my community,” they said. “All the LGBT folks, yeah, you guys brought me home that last hundred [meters]. I could just feel the love and support.”

Hiltz will be one of at least three nonbinary athletes participating in Paris, according to Zeigler. They’ll be joined by U.S. women’s rugby player Kris Thomas and Canadian soccer star Quinn, who helped Canada win a gold medal at the Tokyo Games and made history in the process as the first openly trans athlete to nab an Olympic medal.

While Zeigler said that some people believe the ban on trans women participating in the women’s category for certain sports has an effect on the number of LGBTQ athletes at the Olympics, he said he does not believe that the bans are affecting the overall numbers.

However, he noted, the elimination of softball as an Olympic sport, a sport that had eight LGBTQ women at the Tokyo Games, for example, has had an effect on the numbers. Zeigler also pointed out that the Swedish women’s soccer team, which “surprisingly” didn’t qualify for Paris, had four LGBTQ players in Tokyo.

Women’s soccer, across all participating countries, is the queerest sport at the Olympics this year, with at least 46 out players. Spain’s team has six out athletes, Brazil’s team has eight and Australia’s roster has 12 — which Zeigler said “might be the most LGBTQ people we’ve ever seen on an Olympic team.”