Tony Scupham-Bilton is an incredible historian who has for years tracked LGBTQ Olympians, among many other pursuits. At his blog, Queerstory Files, he shares his painstaking research about the history of LGBTQ people and the community, bringing to light the names of people most of us have never seen or don’t remember.
Now he’s put out his list of all of the LGBTQ Olympians he knows of over history. These are people who came out publicly or have somehow otherwise been acknowledged publicly as being LGBTQ.
His latest list is of the 69 LGBTQ Winter Olympians over the course of time. While the first Winter Olympic Games were in 1924, his list starts with Ronnie Robertson, an American figure skater who competed in the 1956 Winter Olympics, and gets going in the 1960s.
The country with the most LGBTQ Winter Olympians? The United States of America, with 20. Canada is a close second with 18. The next-closest is Sweden with five athletes. This could possibly be in part a language bias, as Scupham-Bilton and the editors of Outsports are all English speakers; It’s more difficult to dig into archives, or even current articles, in foreign languages.
Male figure skaters make up over 40% of the list — 29 in total. There is only one LGBTQ female figure skater we know of: Fumie Suguri of Japan. Even with all of those men’s figure skaters, this year will be the first time any male Winter Olympian has been out during his Olympic competition, and that includes three figure skaters.
Two athletes — Canadian ice hockey payer Jayna Hefford and Norwegian speed skater Edel Høiseth — competed in five Winter Olympics. Hefford won a silver or gold medal every time she competed.
Geert Blanchart, Belgium, speed skating
Brian Boitano, USA, figure skating
Brittany Bowe, USA, speed skating
Luc Bradet, Canada, pairs figure skating
Belle Brockhoff, Australia, snowboard
Tim Brown, USA, figure skating
Anastasia Bucsis, Canada, speed skating
Jeff Buttle, Canada, figure skating
Caitlin Cahow, USA, ice hockey
Julie Chu, USA, ice hockey
Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, USA, snowboard
Toller Cranston, Canada, figure skating
John Curry, Great Britain, figure skating
Lars Dresler, Denmark, figure skating
Nancy Drolet, Canada, ice hockey
John Fennell, Canada, luge
Randy Gardner, USA, pairs figure skating
Timothy Goebel, USA, figure skating
Joan Guetschow, USA, biathlon
Jayna Hefford, Canada, ice hockey
Jorik Hendrickx, Belgium, figure skating
Edel Høiseth, Norway, speed skating
Erika Holst, Sweden, ice hockey
Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, Austria, ski jump
Barbara Jezeršek, Slovenia & Australia, cross-country skiing
Peter Johnston, Sweden, figure skating
Lyndon Johnston, Canada, pairs figure skating
Kathleen Kauth, USA, ice hockey
Gus Kenworthy, USA, freestyle skiing
Stine Brun Kjeldaas, Norway, snowboard
Charlene Labonté, Canada, ice hockey
Ylva Lindberg, Sweden, ice hockey
Cheryl Maas, Netherlands, snowboard
Rob McCall, Canada, pairs figure skating
David McGillivray, Canada, figure skating
Cecillia McIntosh, Australia, bobsleigh
Axel Médéric, France, figure skating
Cameron Medhurst, Australia, figure skating
Simona Meiler, Switzerland, snowboard
Eric Mitchell, Canada, ski jump
Ondrej Nepela, Czechoslovakia, figure skating
Brian Olsen, USA, biathlon
Ryan O’Meara, USA, pairs figure skating
Brian Orser, Canada, figure skating
Caroline Ouellette, Canada, ice hockey
Šarká Pančochová, Czech Republic, snowboard
Paul Bonifacio Parkinson, Italy, figure skating
Anja Pärson, Sweden, skiing
Brian Pockar, Canada, figure skating
Eric Radford, Canada, pairs figure skating
Emilia Andersson Rambolt, Sweden, ice hockey
Javier Raya, Spain, figure skating
Adam Rippon, USA, figure skating
Ronnie Robertson, USA, figure skating
Emanuel Sandhu, Canada, figure skating
Matt Savoie, USA, figure skating
Blake Skjellerup, New Zealand, speed skating
Vibeke Skofterud, Norway, cross-country skiing
Fumie Suguri, Japan, figure skating
Sarah Vaillancourt, Canada, ice hockey
Sanne van Kerkhof, Netherlands, speed skating
Sophie Vercruyssen, Belgium, bobsled
Kerry Weiland-Sorbara, USA, ice hockey
Johnny Weir, USA, figure skating
Marieke Wijsman, Netherlands, speed skating
Russ Witherby, USA, pairs figure skating
Christine Witty, USA, speed skating
Marion Wohlrab, Germany, speed skating
Ireen Wüst, Netherlands, speed skating
Be sure to check out Tony Scupham-Bilton’s fantastic Queerstory Files blog for more history of the LGBTQ community. He is also on Facebook, and on email at [email protected].
Photos by Getty Images
