The Netherlands women’s field hockey team is standing with the LGBTQ community — literally.
Prior to their dominant 5-0 victory over South Africa Wednesday, every member of the team showed their support for LGBTQ people and diversity with an on-field display.
They stood in the shape of a heart with their hands behind their backs.
“Respect and acceptance are two of our team’s core values, respecting and accepting people from every race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability and age,” the team said in an Instagram post. “We strive to continually develop and educate ourselves to become the change we wish to see in the world.”
There is at least one out LGBTQ player on the Netherlands women’s national team: Anne Veenendaal.
After a 1-0 win Thursday over Great Britain, the Dutch women are undefeated in pool play. They won silver at Rio 2016, and we’ll be rooting for them every step of the way.
This strong statement from the Netherlands’ women field hockey players is the latest on-field display of solidarity with the LGBTQ community we’ve seen from Olympic athletes. Last week, Nike Lorenz, the Germany team captain, was cleared to wear rainbow colors.
Overall, this is the gayest Olympics in history, with more than 170 out athletes competing in Tokyo — more than all previous Summer Olympics combined.
Team LGBTQ currently has eight medals. If they were a country, they would rank 11th in the wold.
