Every time the Olympics come around, extremely talented and ambitious athletes make history by winning medals and achieving feats in their respective sports that no one has ever done before.
But it’s not just straight athletes getting their names written in the annals of history anymore, LGBTQ+ Olympians are also blazing trails and changing hearts and minds by representing their countries, winning medals, and taking on the scary task of being the first of something.
Starting in the 1980s, these openly queer athletes have been changing the history of the Olympic Games one title at a time. And history is still being written, with multiple LGBTQ+ Olympians making names for themselves at the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
Here are the Olympians who have cemented their place in the history books.
Robert Dover
When he competed at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, equestrian Robert Dover became the first openly gay athlete to compete at a modern Olympic Games. Since then, Dover has had the pleasure of watching more LGBTQ+ Olympians come out every year. “It is incredible how much people have evolved, all over the world,” Dover said. “There is a big, big difference and I have been fortunate enough to live through all these changes.”
Greg Louganis
Six months before gay Olympic diver Greg Louganis won two gold medals at his final Olympic Games in 1988, he found out he was HIV+. When Louganis came out as gay and made his diagnosis public seven years later in 1995, it brought national attention to AIDS awareness and helped to educate the public about the realities of the disease as opposed to the fear-mongering the government had been guilty of.
Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh
In 2016, Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh became the first married couple to play for the same team at the Olympics. Kate captained the team to a gold medal victory, officially making them the first same-sex married couple to win Olympic gold together. The queer British field hockey players got married in 2013, just one year after they helped Team GB win a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Matthew Mitcham
When Matthew Mitcham competed at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, the diver was considered to be a long shot to take home a medal, but Mitcham ended up making history as the first publicly out gay male athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.
Adam Rippon
Team USA figure skater Adam Rippon made history as the first out gay man to medal at the Winter Games when he won a bronze medal for his free skate performance at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics. This also made him the first openly gay man to compete in the Winter Olympics for the United States.
Eric Radford
Canadian pairs figure skater Eric Radford became the first openly gay Winter Olympics champion after taking home a gold medal alongside partner Meagan Duhamel at the 2018 Winter Games.
Quinn
Canadian midfielder Quinn became the first openly transgender nonbinary athlete to take home a gold medal when Team Canada’s soccer team won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Quinn also won bronze at the 2016 Rio Games and competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Laurel Hubbard
At the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, Laurel Hubbard made history by becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an individual event at the Summer Olympics. The New Zealand weightlifter competed in the women’s +87 kilogram category and was also the oldest weightlifter to qualify for the games.
Ireen Wust
Bisexual athlete Ireen Wust became the most successful Olympic speed skater of all time in 2022 after she won her sixth gold medal. It also marked the first time a competitor has won an individual gold medal at five consecutive Olympics. Wust won 13 Olympic medals in total before retiring after the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Timothy LeDuc
U.S. pairs figure skater Timothy LeDuc made history as the first openly non-binary Olympian to compete in the Winter Games at the Beijing Olympics in 2022. LeDuc started publicly using they/them pronouns in 2021 prior to their appearance in the Olympics.
Nikki Hiltz
Nikki Hiltz is a trail-blazing American middle-distance runner who became the first openly transgender and non-binary athlete to represent Team USA at an individual Olympic event when they competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Elis Lundholm
At the Milano Cortina Olympics, Swedish skier Elis Lundholm became the first openly transgender athlete to compete at a Winter Games. When asked about the potential backlash to his participation leading up to the 2026 Olympics, Lundholm said, “Of course it’s something I thought about. You can hear the voices out there. But then, I do my thing and don’t give a damn.”
Amber Glenn
Pansexual figure skater Amber Glenn won a gold medal at the 2026 Winter Games, where she was the first openly queer woman to score a spot on the U.S. women’s figure skating team.
