LGBTQ Athletes Earned 32 Medals

LGBTQ representation won big at the Tokyo Olympics. According to the LGBTQ sports site Outsports, at least 182 out athletes competed in this year's Summer Games. The total number of LGBTQ athletes that competed in Tokyo was more than three times greater than in the 2016 Games, which took place in Rio de Janeiro.

LGBTQ representation won big at the Tokyo Olympics.

According to the LGBTQ sports site Outsports, at least 182 out athletes competed in this year's Summer Games. The total number of LGBTQ athletes that competed in Tokyo was more than three times greater than in the 2016 Games, which took place in Rio de Janeiro.

At the Rio Games, there was a total of 56 out athletes, and at the 2012 London Olympics, there was a total of 23.

Additionally, at least 56 of the out athletes competing in Tokyo this year won medals, the outlet reported.

And if the out Olympians had somehow competed in the Games as their own country they would rank 11th in the total medal count with 32 team and individual medals: 11 gold, 12 silver and nine bronze.

Progress Pride flag. ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

Some of the out gold medalists included Canadian women's soccer team members Quinn, Kadeisha Buchanan, Erin McLeod, Kailen Sheridan and Stephanie Labbe, Irish boxer Kellie Harrington, U.S. women's basketball team members Sue Bird, Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi and British diver Tom Daley.

"The presence and performance of these out athletes has been a huge story at these Games," Outsports founder Cyd Zeigler said in an email statement to NBC News. "30% of all the out LGBTQ Olympians in Tokyo won a medal, which means they didn't just show up, they also performed at a very high level."

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Many out athletes celebrated their queerness at the Tokyo Summer Games as well, speaking about how important being a member of the LGBTQ community is to them.

"I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion," Daley, 27, told reporters after he won in the 10m platform, per NPR. "When I was younger, I didn't think I'd ever achieve anything because of who I was. To be an Olympic champion now just shows that you can achieve anything."

Featherweight boxer Nesthy Petecio echoed similar sentiments after earning silver for the Philippines. "I am proud to be part of the LGBTQ community," she said, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "Let's go, fight! This fight is also for the LGBTQ community."

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Transgender athletes also made strides at the Summer Games, including Quinn, 25, who became the first openly transgender and non-binary athlete to win an Olympic medal after Canada beat the USWNT.

Quinn, who came out as transgender in September 2020 and uses the nonbinary pronouns they/them, was the first openly transgender athlete to take the competition floor at the Summer Games.

"I feel sad knowing there were Olympians before me unable to live their truth because of the world," they shared in July. "I feel optimistic for change. Change in legislature. Changes in rules, structures, and mindsets."

Opening up about "getting messages from young people saying they've never seen a trans person in sports before," Quinn told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that "athletics is the most exciting part of my life. … If I can allow kids to play the sports they love, that's my legacy and that's what I'm here for."

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