The 2024 Olympic Games Are Making Queer History

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AS THE WORLD gears up to become transfixed by the inescapable energy that the Olympic and Paralympic Games exude, many of us will use this as an opportunity to fall deeper in love with our favourite sports—as well as be inspired by new ones.

With over 10,500 athletes competing in the Summer Games from July 26 to August 11, Paris 2024 marks the biggest event ever organised in France. This year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have diversified their offering by including four additional sports that aim to set a new standard for gender-balanced events and “reward creativity and athletic performance.” These include breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing.

As well as broadening the athletic potential of the games, Paris is making sure that staff, supporters and athletes of all identities can show up to the games and focus on the only thing that’s important: the sport. With participation between male and female athletes set to be at 50:50 for the first time in the Games’ history, it is clear that the IOC have continued to make strides when it comes to gender-specific representation.

For LGBTQ+ attendees, the first Pride House to be backed by the IOC is set to open on the River Seine on July 26, where LGBTQ+ supporters and competitors can socialise, eat, drink and watch the games. Speaking to TIME, one of the Paris Pride House organisers Jérémy Goupille said that “Nobody has to hide who they are,” during the event.

Pride House International established the first house in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, to “create a safe space in host cities where there is little tolerance or acceptance for being LGBTQ.” The necessity of such spaces became self-evident at the subsequent Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, where anti-LGBTQ+ laws exist to this day.

Tokyo 2021 saw the largest number of openly LGBTQ+ competitors to date, and this year looks set to break that record for queer representation, meaning countless sports fans around the world will be able to see themselves on the track or in the pool for the very 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 are set to compete in the Summer Games. There is also a record number of out male Olympic athletes set to compete, including Team USA’s champion runner Nico Young. Other American athletes include Brittney Griner in basketball, Raven Saunders in track and field, and Hannah Roberts in BMX racing.

Across the pond, diving fans will recognize returning Team GB gold medalist Tom Daley, who has already gone viral while trying out the new cardboard beds erected in the Olympic Village. Canadian soccer star—and the first non-binary medalist in Olympic history—Quinn will also return to the field, shrugging off recent injury concerns to defend their podium-topping performance in 2021.

However, while this year sees positive change in terms of an increase in representation for LGBTQ+ athletes and Paris creating safe-spaces for the queer community, the topic of trans participation in the Games—and in sports as a whole—has faced heavy scrutiny over the past three years. The IOC published new guidelines for trans athletes in November 2021 which laid out their plan to “balance inclusivity with fairness”, and included a “10-principle approach” for each sports International Federation to follow when making their decision as to who can compete in male and female categories. As the decision is now up to each individual federation to decide, rather than the IOC as a whole, sports such as cycling, swimming, weightlifting and track and field have been able to ban transgender women from competing for their respective countries if they went through puberty as the sex they were assigned at birth.

Despite evidence that transgender women who have undergone testosterone suppression have no clear biological advantages over cisgender women in elite sport, these bans have meant some athletes are unable to represent their countries on the Olympic stage. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who competed as part of Team New Zealand in Tokyo, will no longer be allowed to participate. Nor will American swimmer Lia Thomas, who became the first transgender athlete to win a US college title in 2022. Other sports where athletes have been banned, despite qualifying for the Games in 2021, include BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe and sprinter Halba Diouf.

So, on the surface it looks like the Paris Olympic Games are set to be the most inclusive yet, but much like society on a wider scale, the IOC still has work to do to ensure that trans athletes feel as supported, celebrated and accepted as the LGB athletes we now see taking up space. Creating a more accessible sporting environment through initiatives like the Pride House furthers a single shared aim, which is for athletes to be able to focus on what is most important to them: winning. The less athletes have to worry about how they may be mistreated or excluded due to their sexuality or gender identity, the more time they have to perfect their performance and make their countries proud.

As millions watch the opening ceremony in Paris, and we look further ahead to Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032, let’s hope the progress continues for athletes to be able to show up as their truest selves, and continue to inspire the next generation of Olympians, no matter who they are or who they love.

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