The first week of the Olympic Games continues.
The Paris 2024 schedule includes 48 events across 32 sports, with the majority of events currently underway following last Friday’s Opening Ceremony.
Of those, more than 30 tournaments have LGBTQ representatives on their teams.
Outsports is tracking the fortunes of at least 193 openly LGBTQ athletes at the games.
Get off the sidelines and get in the game
Our weekly newsletter is packed with information on everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
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To help you plan your viewing, here are 10 recommended viewing moments on the LGBTQ-only schedule.
Times are Paris, CEST. Adjust to UK, -1 BST, New York, -6 EDT, LA, -9 PDT.
Leibvaart is only 20 years old, but she has already made history by becoming the first U.S. woman to qualify for the Olympics in three events in canoeing and kayaking. In Paris, she placed 15th in the kayak slalom (K1) semifinals. Only the top 12 qualify for the final. Leibvaart will next compete in Vers-sur-Marne in the C1 event, where she will need to finish in the top 15 to advance to the semifinals on Thursday.
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3.30pm: Women’s Rugby Sevens
With over half of the teams in the tournament having openly LGBTQ players on their squad, the semi-finals and medal matches will be played at the Stade de France. New Zealand will face the USA in the semi-finals, while Australia will face Canada. The Black Ferns, with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, are the favourites to defend the Olympic title they won in Tokyo, but Australia, the Rio 2016 champions, will be determined to stop them, with Shani Smale (née Williams) playing in their final sevens tournament.
Now it’s make-or-break time for Gilmour, who is competing in the women’s singles for Britain for the third time at the Olympics. To win Group N and progress to the round of 16, she must beat China’s He Bingjiao, ranked eighth in the world. The two players met at the Indonesia Open last month, with He beating Gilmour by four straight matches. “You have to be yourself. For me personally, hiding parts of myself doesn’t help my performance. I’m proud to be here,” said the 30-year-old Gilmour after her win over Azerbaijan’s Keisha Fatima Azzahra on Monday.
TBC: Tyler Wright, Sarah Baum, Anat Lelioglu, Surfing
The third round of the women’s shortboard competition in Tahiti has been postponed because of bad weather. Three surfers from the LGBTQ team are still in contention to compete. Australia’s Wright is ranked in the top 10 in the World Surf League but had to undergo skull surgery for balance issues in the run up to the Olympics. She will face Israel’s Lelior in the last 16. South Africa’s Baum, who qualified for the Olympics a year ago by winning the African continental quota, will face Carissa Moore of the United States. The waves off Te Aupo are formidable. “Anyone who goes out there is a total psychopath,” Wright says.
The Tokyo 70kg bronze medalist will compete in the Olympics as a round of 16 athlete. Van Dijk, from the Netherlands, is ranked fifth in the world and will be considered a strong contender here, despite missing both the European and World Championships earlier this year with a back injury. She will also represent the Netherlands in the mixed team event. Van Dijk’s official Olympic profile lists his girlfriend, Lisa van der Heijden.
The middleweight (75kg) is the heaviest division in the women’s tournament, and for Basiadan, whose Paris challenge begins with a historic bout against China’s Li Qian in the round of 16. If he makes it to the podium, he will become the first openly transgender man to win an Olympic medal. Later that day, in the opposite draw, Refugee Olympic Team’s Ngamba will face Canada’s Tamara Thibaut. Ngamba fled Cameroon with her family in 2009 and came to the UK, where she was at risk of being deported. She was granted asylum in 2022 because she is a lesbian, as both male and female homosexual acts are illegal in the Central African country.
This final could be a triple crown for the LGBTQ team, with all three riders having placed in the top five in Tokyo three years ago. Roberts, making his Olympic debut here, will represent the USA alongside Venegas, who placed fourth, ahead of Diem. With a fantastic location at the Place de la Concorde, it’s sure to be an exciting event.
Manson and double sculls partner Jordan Parry have had impressive results reaching the Olympic final. Manson has been a firm favorite in outsports since coming out as gay nearly a decade ago. The New Zealand duo qualified through Saturday’s heats and placed third in Tuesday’s semifinals. Manson and Parry won bronze at the World Cup last month and will be hoping for a spot on the podium on Thursday.
Scruggs has already won one medal in the individual foil event at the Paris Olympics and now she’s looking to add another in the team event. The 21-year-old from Queens will be in a group with Lee Kiefer (who beat Scruggs in Sunday’s gold medal match), Maia Weintraub and Jacqueline Dubrovich. The four reached the bronze medal match at last year’s world championships in Milan but lost to Japan. They will now face China in the quarterfinals.
