The crucial role of queer olympic athletes

Mary Macleod

Contributing Columnist

On Feb. 12, Canadian figure skaters Eric Radford and Meagan Duhamel earned the gold medal in the team skate competition in the Winter Olympics. This win was especially historic because Radford is the first openly gay man to become a gold medal champion since the inception of the Winter Olympics nearly 100 years ago.

Figure skater Adam Rippon made U.S. history when he earned a bronze medal in the free skate category, establishing him as the first openly gay American man to medal in the Winter Olympics. Overall, there are 14 openly queer athletes from around the world competing in the Pyeongchang Games, doubling the number of out athletes who competed in the 2014 Sochi Games. The rapidly increasing visibility of gay athletes naturally raises the topics of representation and perception in sports. When discussing the global perception of gay athletes, it seems imperative to look back at the political turmoil surrounding the 2014 Sochi Olympics. On July 30, 2013, only about six months