Natasha Kai of the U.S. was not the only out woman to stand on a soccer victory podium.  German lesbian midfielder Linda Bresonik stood with her victorious teammates after Germany beat Japan 2-0 for the bronze.  At home, she plays with the SG Essen-Schoenbeck as well as the national team.  

In the softball finals, the U.S.  team went down to Japan 3-1 in a huge upset.  But hey, we did get a silver, not a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.  Which meant that hitter/second baseman Vicky Galindo (who is bi) and out lesbian catcher Lauren Lappin were showing off their medals with their teammates. 

Out lesbian Natasha Kai is an Olympic gold medalist after the US beat Brazil in the soccer’s gold medal match today. Kai came into the game in extra time to help hold off Brazil, shortly after the USA took a 1-0 lead. Kai has had an excellent tournament: her final minute header gave the USA the win that got them to the semi-final match last weekend.

Bailly plays for the Belgium soccer team in the Olympics. The Belgium radio and TV magazine Humo picked him as the Golden Stud this year, emblematic of the hottest Belgium soccer player. He told the magazine he was honored to win the award given the stiff competition. Click here for a full shot of Bailly in his undies. Thanks to a reader for this.

The Summer Olympics just keep getting bigger. There are 302 gold medals up for grabs in Beijing. That’s a gold medal every 47 minutes for the sixteen-day span of the games. Doesn’t sound so special when it’s put that way, does it? But is that BMX gold medal really as significant as the historic one Michael Phelps won last night? No, and there are good reasons why. Follow the jump for an in-depth analysis of the most valuable gold medals and the sports that don’t even deserve to be in the Olympics.

As we’ve said many times before, there are surely many athletes at the Olympics who are openly gay with friends and family, and may have even told some of the press, but it just hasn’t gotten much coverage because they’re not a high-profile athlete. While Natasha Kai, who is a forward on the U.S. soccer team, is a great and up-and-coming athlete, a comment of hers in June to an NBCOlympics.com writer didn’t get much press. In talking about attending the U.S. Women’s National Team training camp in January, she said this:

“It was a hard time,” remembered Kai, who saw action limited action under former coach Greg Ryan as one of the last three players added to the 2007 World Cup roster. “I had missed the first camp [under new head coach Pia Sundhage] in early-January because I had bronchitis, and I was going through a nasty break-up with my girlfriend. Then [Coach Sundhage] told me my job was on the line.”