The depth and breadth of the 2024 Outsports Power 100 is impressive.
There are pro basketball and hockey players; team owners; sports front-office and business executives; media executives; team trainers; NFL, WNBA and college basketball coaches; referees; mixed martial artists; pro wrestlers; gymnasts; journalists and commentators; Olympians and Paralympians, and even one high school athlete.
Compiling the list of the most powerful LGBTQ people in sports is never a simple task, with hundreds of deserving people doing great work in their sport, and for the community. It’s further proof of the growing visibility of out people in all areas of athletics.
The list, which is being rolled out starting today with Nos. 91-100 and continuing until Oct. 25, originally started with hundreds of people to consider and took weeks to craft into the 100 people we thought were most “powerful” by our metric.
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In compiling our second annual list, Outsports consulted with LGBTQ people in sports in addition to executives across pro sports and the media. We then crunched some variables to come up with the final list. The list is confined to people in sports in the U.S.
We used a system that assigned points based on criteria such as job title; league, conference or media affiliation; social media influence; LGBTQ advocacy; whether they are current or former; and for athletes coaches and team executives, how many championships they have won. We used this system to get a ranking that we then refined. We used hard numbers, as well as our instincts honed from covering LGBTQ people in sports for 25 years.
Some of the names on the list are obvious — tennis icon, Dodgers part-owner and LGBTQ advocate Billie Jean King and her wife, Iliana Kloss (who were our No. 1 in 2023); George Cheeks, the co-CEO of Paramount Global and president of CBS, and WNBA stars like Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart.
Some of our honorees are less known. Take, for example, Chris Hagstrom-Jones, assistant general manager of the South Bend Cubs, and No. 100 on the list. Hagstrom-Jones was chosen because he is an out gay man thriving in a sport that has seen very few out people at any level. And he buys into the baseball theme, even in his private life.
His wedding was held on a minor league baseball home field and used scorecards as place settings with a cake fashioned with baseball-stitched hearts.
“It’s the most traditional non-traditional marriage that you can think of for two gay men,” he told Outsports.
One of the youngest honorees is Sam Phillips, 22, a gay gymnast now at the University of Illinois who earned All-America honors at Nebraska and is using his growing social media platforms to represent brands and to also advocate as an out LGBTQ athlete.
“I’m using my body as advocacy,” Phillips told Outsports. “Showing up to spaces I’m in while being authentically me and repping the LGBTQ community (whether that be by flag, pin or speech) shows I’m bringing the community with me into these spaces to serve as representation.
“I hope to continue my activism in the policy and political realm after my athletic journey.”
He demonstrated this commitment with an Instagram post on National Coming Out Day where he discussed homophobia in sports.
Without giving too much away (such as who is No. 1), high-profile U.S. Olympians make up many of the newcomers to the list. And there are some surprises, highlighting people who thrived on the playing field or in the arena of advocacy.
A quote from former U.S. women’s soccer star Ali Krieger from a year ago summed up the responsibility of out athletes.
“It’s a lot of responsibility, but a lot of responsibility we’re willing to take,” the two-time World Cup soccer champion said. “If we don’t fight for our community and ourselves, who will? It’s inspiring to use and motivating to continue showing up. it’s a job we’ve taken on just being ourselves. and we’ll continue to speak on it and be visible.”
Check in every weekday through Oct. 25 as we reveal a new group of 10 inductee along with profiles of several of them.
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