A photo collage showing some of the out LGBTQ Olympians at the Paris Summer Games. | Collage by Ian Helms, with photos from Getty Images, USA Today and other sources

See the list of out LGBTQ Olympic athletes in Paris

At least 199 publicly out gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and nonbinary athletes will be in Paris for the 2024 Olympics, the second consecutive Summer Games where the number has reached triple digits. There are also a record number of out male Olympians.

The numbers — which have grown by 55 since the list was first published July 17 — reflect growing acceptance in the sports world, especially for women athletes, despite the total of out LGBTQ Olympians still hovering at less than 2% of the expected overall figure of around 10,700 participants. Team USA has more than 5% of its athletes being out LGBTQ.

Notable LGBTQ Olympians

Among the prominent out Olympians are British diver Tom Daley; USA track star Sha’Carri Richardson (who might be the world’s fastest woman); pro basketball players Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas, Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray of Team USA; Brazilian gymnast Arthur Nory; and trans nonbinary athletes Quinn (Canada soccer) and Nikki Hiltz (USA track and field).

Publicly out women Olympians outnumber men on our Team LGBTQ list by about a 9-1 margin, roughly the same ratio as at the 2021 Tokyo Games. The 20 out male Olympians top the 16 from Tokyo, and there are some firsts. Nico Young, a 10,000-meter runner, is the first out men’s U.S. track and field athlete, while Timo Cavelius is the first out gay male judo athlete. Equestrian accounts for almost half of all the out men in Paris.

One of the first-time out Olympians is U.S. women’s rugby player Stephanie Rovetti, a one-time star on BYU’s basketball team who forged a second athletic career in rugby. Raised in Reno as a Mormon, Rovetti found her orientation at odds with her religion, so being out in Paris is very meaningful, she told Outsports.

“Going to the Olympics as an out athlete means a lot to me,” Rovetti said. “You go and represent all communities you are a part of and that representation on the world stage matters. Coming from a religious background, I hope to be a representation of courage to be your true authentic self “

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Rising numbers and visibility

The final total of Team LGBTQ members in Tokyo was 186 athletes, but Outsports had only 120 out Olympians when our list was first published two weeks before the 2021 Games. After the list came out, we heard from fans, journalists and athletes themselves who gave us names of other out athletes. Some names were added weeks after the Games ended.

While almost all male athletes come out in a public way via the media (because of how few of them there are), many women are out on social media, flying under the media radar. Add in language barriers, and it’s initially easy to overlook an obvious out athlete. We’ll discover many of them in the coming days and weeks.

In addition, the absence of softball from these Games and of Sweden’s women’s soccer team have definitely lowered the totals. In Tokyo, there were eight out softball players and four Swedish soccer players.

There are also athletes who have confirmed to us that they identify as LGBTQ but ask not to be included on the list because of potential conflicts if their names were made public in this way, such as with family.

If someone has not made a public declaration to the media that they are LGBTQ, they can still be included on this list if they are openly living their life as an out person on social media, particularly if they have made clear they are in a same-sex relationship.

How we compiled the list

Outsports uses journalistic sources (such as LGBT historian Tony Scupham-Bilton, who runs the blog The Queerstory Files), reader crowdsourcing and the athletes’ social media to determine who is out. That’s how we added Rovetti to the list. Her Instagram account seemed to strongly suggest she was LGBTQ, and she answered in the affirmative when we direct-messaged her.

We err on the conservative side if we are not sure, not because there’s anything wrong with being called LGBTQ but for journalistic accuracy and a desire to not “out” anyone.

Robert Dover was a Team USA equestrian athlete for six consecutive Olympics from 1984 to 2004 and one of the first out gay Olympians. He recognizes the impact of visibility.

“Having been out and proud in every Games since 1988 in Seoul, Korea, I can tell you that the impact you are making on young, gay athletes to find the same courage you have shown by publicly being your authentic selves is immeasurable,” Dover told Outsports in a message to out athletes.

“My hope is that there will be a time when the universal acceptance of LGBTQ people will make the need for announcing ourselves as such obsolete. Until that day, gay pride will go on being celebrated as well as demonstrated by heroes like yourselves. Robert, my husband of 36 years, and I will be watching and rooting for you all.”

Global representation

The list of out athletes is heavily weighted to parts of the world where being LGBTQ is both legally and culturally accepted. This includes countries in North and South America, Western and Northern Europe and Australia and New Zealand. There are out athletes from 27 of the 206 participating nations (including the Refugee Olympic Team).

There are only three out athletes from Asia that we know of at the time of publication: two boxers from the Philippines and one from Thailand. There are only four athletes from Africa: three South Africans, and one from the Refugee Team, boxer Cindy Ngamba, born in Cameroon and now living in Great Britain. There is only one athlete from any Muslim-dominated country (a Turkish volleyball player), places where being out and gay is often illegal or dangerous, and none from Russia, which has cracked down on LGBTQ rights in the past decade.

We know we likely have missed some out athletes, especially those who are non-Americans, as Outsports is based in the United States. If you know of an out LGBTQ athlete not on the list, or have any other inquiry, please contact us via email ([email protected]), or direct message us on Twitter/X (@outsports), Instagram (@outsports) or Facebook (OutsportsSBN).

This list was compiled by Cyd Zeigler, Jim Buzinski, Karleigh Webb and Jon Holmes of Outsports and LGBTQ historian Tony Scupham-Bilton.