Never Have the Olympics Been So Rainbow Before
Article written by Maya Vukovska
There are many reasons why this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo were unlike any other in their 125-year history. For starters, they took place 12 months later than planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While 11,500 athletes and 79, 000 officials, journalists, and support staff traveled to Japan, the number of spectators was… zero. For the first time, the winners had to put on their medals themselves and weren’t permitted to shake hands or hug. There were, in fact, so many ridiculous restrictions and rigid regulations that had to be followed that the athletes got really confused. The table tennis players were not allowed to touch the table and not even blow on the balls, for God’s sake!
The number’s growing
Another thing that makes the 2020 Olympics a historic sports event is the number of LGBTQ athletes competing in it. In London, 2012, they were 23. Four years later, in Rio, they were 56. According to LBGTQ sports news site Outsports, there were at least 168 openly gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender-nonconforming athletes in Tokyo this summer - more than ever before!
Well, it was about time for the out Olympians to unleash a rainbow wave. And it seams that it will be difficult to stop that wave from growing stronger in the coming years.
Spreading the word
Many of the out Olympians seized the opportunity that the whole world was watching them and delivered a message of equality and acceptance. For some athletes competing in certain, very heteronormative sports, it was a particularly galvanizing challenge to put themselves out there and set an example for those who still feel held back and unable to be themselves. Finnish Ari-Pekka Liukkonen is among the very few openly gay men in his sport, swimming. Not that he is a single gay dolphin in the pool, but he claims it’s been extremely difficult for male swimmers to come out as gay. In his home country, however, people celebrated his bravery and honesty and he was named Finland’s sports model of 2014. Tokyo was his third Olympics, and he was given the honorary role of the flag bearer.
Because it’s become such a trend, more and more gay athletes are now willing to speak out about their private lives. And they said it was important for them to be on the Outsports’ list because, as the Canadian rugby player Elissa Alarie puts it, “we are in 2021 and there are firsts happening. Which means that we need still need to work on this.”
Everybody loves Tom Daley
The guy went viral when he was spotted knitting during the women’s 3-meter springboard final. Now, with the Games being over, he proudly showed his knitting masterpiece on Instagram - a cardigan with a self-designed pattern of the colorwork that, in his own words, is supposed to signify everything these games are about. But it wasn’t only the knitting that brought Tom Daley into the spotlights. The 27-year old charming four-time Olympian won not only the hearts of the spectators but also a gold medal in the men’s 10-meter synchronized dive. Besides, Daley has been an advocate of LGBTQ rights for years. Daley became a sensation in his native UK after he competed in his first Olympics, in Beijing in 2008, when he was only 14 years old. He came out as gay in a YouTube video in 2013, shortly after he started dating his now-husband Dustin. Because of the COVID-restrictions in Tokyo, Tom wasn’t able to bring along his family. That's why he was even more determined to win a gold medal in order to show his 3-year-old son back home that he can be very proud with his dad.
Daley captured the hearts of the global LGBTQ community and the rest of the world by saying, “I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion,” he added. “Because, you know, when I was younger I thought I was never going to be anything or achieve anything because of who I was.”
More inspiration is on the way
Daley may have been the most prominent LGBTQ figure at the 2020 Olympics, but he was definitely not the only one to stand out. The picture of the basketball star Sue Bird sharing a kiss with her finacée Megan Rapinoe - an American professional soccer player after the US women's basketball team won the gold, instantly went viral. Fans called it "a kiss between two legends".
The American non-binary skateboarder Alana Smith announced that her ultimate goal at the Olympics was not to win a medal but to be happy and “to become a visual representation for humans like me.”
After winning silver in the quadruple sculls, the Polish rower Katarzyna Zillman said she wanted to use the Olympics platform to help the LGBTQ community in her country where there’s been a disturbingly rising wave of homophobia in recent years.
Although Tokyo had three times as many out LGBTQ athletes as Rio had, activists are not yet contented. The way they see it, one battle’s been won, but the war is still to be won.
