Canada’s women’s ice hockey team enters the Beijing Winter Olympics a favorite for a medal. Oh yeah, they also have the most LGBTQ athletes competing at any Olympic Games ever.
With at least seven publicly out athletes competing on the team, the Canadians have more publicly out LGBTQ women on their ice hockey team than any other country has total out athletes at these Winter Games.
One previous Olympic team — the 2020 women’s soccer team from the Netherlands — also had seven out players who competed at the Olympics.
Athletes in women’s teams have for years led the way on LGBTQ visibility in sports. While the number of publicly out men in pro sports in North America can be counted on one hand, the women number many dozens.
While half of the 10 women’s hockey teams in Beijing have at least one publicly out athlete — including Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and USA — none other than Canada have more than two that we know of.
Here are the publicly out athletes on Team Canada’s historic women’s hockey team, a source of pride for LGBTQ athletes everywhere:
Brianne Jenner — Her third Olympic Games, she already has Olympic gold and silver. She played college hockey for Cornell, marrying her former Cornell teammate, Hayleigh Cudmore, in 2019.
Erin Ambrose — Ambrose has a gold, silver and bronze from the World Championships while playing for Canada.
Emily Clark — A former player for the University of Wisconsin, this will be Clark’s second Olympic Games.
Mélodie Daoust — Daoust first picked up a hockey stick at age 5. She’s now going for her third Olympic medal playing for Canada.
Jamie Lee Rattray — This will be Rattray’s first Olympics. In 2014 she helped Clarkson University (N.Y.) win its first NCAA women’s hockey championship.
Jill Saulnier — Saulnier also played for Cornell, where she scored 195 points in her four seasons for the Big Red.
Micah Zandee-Hart — Another former Cornell player, Zandee-Hart is playing in her first Olympic Games.
For more LGBTQ news from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, be sure to check Outsports’ Olympic story stream.
