Only Ten Openly Gay Olympic Athletes

There are only ten openly gay competitors in the Beijing 2008 olympics, but that is more than we could ask for. I want to say thank you to all that stand up and say "Here".

Of the 10,708 athletes who will march into Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium on Friday, Outsports is aware of only 10 who are publicly gay, on par with the 2004 Games. There is also a bisexual American softball player.

Of the 10 publicly gay Olympians this year, only one is a man: Matthew Mitcham (Australia, diving). Mitcham stunned the diving world by winning the gold medal Aug. 23 in the 10-meter platform.

The out lesbians are: Judith Arndt (Germany, cycling), Imke Duplitzer (Germany, fencing), Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg (Norway, handball and a lesbian couple), Natasha Kai (U.S., soccer), Lauren Lappin (U.S., softball); Victoria "Vickan" Svensson (Sweden, soccer); Rennae Stubbs (Australia, tennis) and Linda Bresonik (Germany, soccer).

Simple math illustrates the likely range of gay athletes in Beijing, using the 10,708 total participants. If 10% were gay, this would mean 1,070 athletes. Even the extremely low range of 1% would leave 107 gay athletes. Researchers such as Eric Anderson of the University of Bath in England (and a longtime Outsports contributor) say that the percentage of gays in sports mirrors the percentage in the entire population (estimated at between 2% and 10%).

Via outsports