clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Outsports homepage

Filed under:

If Team LGBTI were a country, it would be the 61st largest at Rio Olympics

At least 43 out LGBTI athletes are competing in Rio, more than compete for countries like Estonia and Mongolia.

By Cyd Zeigler
Torch Bearer Former Table Tennis Champion Zhang Jike (R) and London Olympics women's 10-meter platform and 10m platform champion Chen Ruolin runs with the torch during the opening ceremony for the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on August 16, 2014 in Nanjing, China.
Torch Bearer Former Table Tennis Champion Zhang Jike (R) and London Olympics women's 10-meter platform and 10m platform champion Chen Ruolin runs with the torch during the opening ceremony for the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on August 16, 2014 in Nanjing, China.
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

If Team LGBTI were a country competing together at the 2016 Rio Olympics, it would be the 61st largest of the then-207 competing entities. Currently counting 43 publicly out LGBTI athletes at the Rio Games, these athletes are competing in over a dozen different sports.

Team LGBTI is slightly larger than the contingents from Estonia, Mongolia and Puerto Rico, each of which has 42 athletes. With 48 athletes, Israel is only slightly larger than Team LGBTI.

In the past, out athletes have had incredible success winning medals. In London in 2016, over 40% of the out athletes won a medal, which is exceptionally high.

Even though the number of out athletes is higher than ever this year, they still account for less than 0.4% of all of the athletes competing, which is by our guess about a tenth of what it would be if all LGBTI athletes in Rio were publicly out.

In This Stream

2016 Rio Summer Olympics

View all 73 stories

More From Outsports