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For Pride month, we’ve dedicated each day of June to an individual athlete or coach whose shining moment changed LGBTQ sports.
Robert Dover is a trailblazer of trailblazers for LGBTQ athletes.
In 1988 he became the first publicly out gay athlete to compete in an Olympic Games. He came out to his team and to the media before those games, and by the 1996 and ‘96 Summer Olympics, the media were following him to learn more about being a gay athlete.
Dover competed in equestrian, where he won four Olympic bronze medals. All in all he competed in six Olympic Games — the most of any athlete to ever come out publicly — competing in every Summer Olympics from 1984 to 2004. He ended his Olympic run as an athlete with his fourth bronze in Athens in 2004.
Since then he’s been a successful equestrian coach, returning to the Olympics and winning another Olympic medal. He now has a successful equestrian-wear company with his husband, fellow rider Robert Ross.
You can check out my Five Rings To Rule Them All podcast with Dover on Apple podcasts and wherever you find Outsports podcasts.
We’ll have another Moment of Pride tomorrow and every day in June.
