The Beijing Winter Olympics are over, and out LGBTQ athletes did a fantastic job of representing the community.
Collectively they finished 12th on the medal table with 39% of them winning a gold, silver or bronze. Various other athletes finished in the top-10 of their event, and all of them weathered unprecedented measures to compete at their highest level.
As they ended their events, attended the Closing Ceremony and left Beijing, many of them shared their memories on Instagram.
There were four out LGBTQ athletes representing Team Great Britain, three of them being men from three different sports. Lewis Gibson was sure to catch a shot of him with Gus Kenworthy and medalist Bruce Mouat.
This was Kenworthy’s third Olympics, and his last. He chose to represent Team Great Britain this time around, to honor his mother, who’s British. Kenworthy was actually born in the United Kingdom.
He finished eighth overall in the halfpipe, an event in which he had never competed in the Olympics. It was a very strong showing by Kenworthy.
The Canadian women’s hockey team, of course, was celebrating their gold medal as they left Beijing. You can’t blame them. They demolished their competition, then outlasted Team USA in the gold medal match.
When Canada and the U.S. play, it’s always a fight. And the women of Canada — many of whom played college hockey in the United States and counted Team USA players as their teammates — earned their gold.
Nicole Silveira ended up 13th in skeleton, one of the few athletes from Brazil to compete in the Games. She had a lot to deal with, including her girlfriend, Kim Meylemans, experiencing what came darn close to an international incident. Still, we’re thrilled for Silveira and hope to see her back.
Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff suffered a disappointing crash in the mixed team snowboard cross, ending her medal hopes. Still, she was in good spirits — or at least as good as you could hope — as her Olympics came to a close.
We at Outsports are thankful for all of the LGBTQ athletes who were willing to compete in China while being publicly out. And we look forward to continuing to celebrate all of them.
