As the world prepares to become captivated by the inescapable energy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, many of us will use this as an opportunity to deepen our love of our favourite sports and get inspired by new ones.
More than 10,500 athletes will take part in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, which runs from July 26 to August 11, making it the largest event ever to be held in France. This year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) set new standards for gender-balanced competitions and sought to diversify the competitions by adding four new sports, including breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing, with the aim of “recognizing creativity and athleticism.”
Paris is not only expanding the scope of Olympic competition, it is also allowing staff, supporters and athletes of all identities to participate in the Olympics and focus on the only thing that matters: sport. With the first Olympic Games in history to have a 50/50 split between male and female athletes, it is clear that the IOC has continued to make progress on gender representation.
The first IOC-backed Pride House for LGBTQ+ participants is set to open on July 26 along the Seine, where LGBTQ+ supporters and athletes can mingle, eat, drink, and watch the games. Jérémie Goupille, one of the organizers of the Paris Pride House, told TIME that “no one will have to hide who they are” during the event.
Pride House International established its first house in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, aiming to “create a safe space in a host city where tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ people is largely absent. The need for such a space became evident during the subsequent Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where anti-LGBTQ+ laws exist to this day.
Tokyo 2021 has seen the most openly LGBTQ+ athletes ever, and this year is set to break records for queer representation, meaning countless sports fans around the world will get to see themselves on the track and in the pool for the first time. So how many LGBTQ+ athletes will be competing in Paris?
According to the Out To Sports database, 144 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary Olympians from 25 countries will compete in the Summer Olympics, along with a record number of openly male Olympians, including champion U.S. runner Nico Young. Other U.S. athletes include basketball player Brittney Griner, track and field athlete Raven Sanders and BMX racer Hannah Roberts.
Across the ocean, diving fans will recognize British gold medallist Tom Daley, who has already been spotted trying out the new cardboard beds installed in the Olympic Village. Canadian soccer star Quinn, the first non-binary medallist in Olympic history, will also be shaking off recent injury concerns and returning to the field in an attempt to defend his top performance on the podium in 2021.
But while there have been positive changes this year in terms of increased representation of LGBTQ+ athletes and Paris creating a safe space for the queer community, the topic of transgender inclusion in the Olympics, and in sport overall, has faced intense scrutiny for the past three years. The IOC released new guidelines for transgender athletes in November 2021, laying out its plan to “balance inclusivity and fairness” and including a “10-principle approach” for each sport’s international federation to follow when deciding who can compete in the male and female categories. Because this decision is left to each individual federation, rather than the IOC as a whole, sports such as cycling, swimming, weightlifting, and athletics have been able to ban transgender women who have reached puberty in the sex they were assigned at birth from competing for their respective countries.
These bans mean some athletes will be unable to represent their countries on the Olympic stage, despite evidence that testosterone-suppressed transgender women have no clear biological advantage over cisgender women in elite sports. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who competed for Team New Zealand in Tokyo, will no longer be able to compete. So will American swimmer Leah Thomas, who became the first transgender athlete to win a U.S. college title in 2022. Other athletes banned despite qualifying for the 2021 Olympics include BMX rider Chelsea Wolf and sprinter Halva Diouf.
On the surface, the Paris Olympics will be the most inclusive yet, but the IOC, like broader society, still has work to do to ensure transgender athletes feel just as supported, celebrated and accepted as their current high-profile LGBT athletes. Creating a more accessible sporting environment through initiatives like Pride House furthers our shared goal of allowing athletes to focus on what matters most to them: winning. The less athletes have to worry about being mistreated or excluded because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, the more time they have to perfect their performance and make their countries proud.
As millions watch the opening ceremonies in Paris, and then look ahead to Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032, let’s hope that progress continues so that athletes can continue to show up as their true selves, no matter who they are or who they love, and continue to inspire the next generation of Olympians.
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