On Trial For The Olympics

No, the title isn’t about crime. Believe it or not there’s only 200 days to go before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter games in Pyeong Chang, South Korea. My world-renowned list of lgbt Olympians is very close to 300 names. I wonder if I will reach that number before the games begin.

But I already have a list of reserve or alternate team members whose only reason for not being on the Olympian list is because no other Olympic team member fell ill or injured. A few of these alternate athletes took part in the parade at the opening ceremony with the rest of their team. And then there are the lgbt athletes who competed in Olympic trials and qualifying tournaments. If I add them to my list I get a total of 379. If I add the Paralympians and their alternates to the list we increase that number by 20. Which means that there is an accumulative list of lgbt Olympians, Paralympians, reserves and alternates of

399.

This far ahead of the Pyeong Chang games it isn’t possible to know how many lgbt athletes will appear in 2018. However, we can get a good idea if we look at the qualification tournaments and Olympic selection trials, which all sports go through these days before the final selection of the national teams, for the previous three Winter Olympics. For the Sochi 2014 there were 5 lgbt athletes who competed in trials but didn’t make the team (there were 18 lgbt Olympians who did go to Sochi). For Vancouver 2010 there were 10 who went no further than the trials (19 Olympians and 2 alternates). For Turin 2006 there were 14 (19 Olympians and 1 alternate). I hope the downward trend in lgbt athletes taking part in trials is not an indication that there are fewer wanting to compete.

There are many athletes who are openly lgbt but do not shout about it. They are not national celebrities and often disappear into a regular life after they finish their competitive career without making the news. They are by no means “in the closet”, nor were they when they competed.

Competing in an Olympic trial does not necessarily imply an athlete is hoping for a place on the team. He/she may just be trying to achieve their best performance in national ranking. Or they may be competing to gain qualification for their nation; nations often have to compete for qualification as well as individual athletes, e.g. in football/soccer, ice hockey or beach volleyball. Another example is in equestrian eventing. Former Olympian Blyth Tait competed in the qualifying tournament which was to select which nations would for Rio 2016. He helped to secure a place for New Zealand but did not compete in any further qualification events for individual team members. That is why I have chosen to list all lgbt athletes who competed in trials and qualifying tournaments.

There seems to be a trend which reinforces sporting stereotypes, a fact which may seem undesirable in a perfect world. For instance, the stereotype of many male figure skaters being gay men and many female football/soccer players being lesbian has been around for decades. But we cannot escape the fact that it is true, and it is further reinforced by the number of athletes competing in the trials.

Here are some of the figures. In the table I have listed the top ten sports. I have counted all athletes who have competed in trials and qualifying tournaments, including those who were later banned or deselected. Transgender athletes have been counted in the gender category in which they first competed. All of the Olympians and alternate/reserves also competed in trials or selections. I have not included any Paralympians in this table. 

	SPORT	TOTAL	OLYMPIANS	ALTERNATE/ RESERVE	TRIALS COMPETITOR
1	Figure skating	63	26	5	32
2	Football/soccer	48	42	3	2
3	Track and field	44	35		9
4	Swimming	29	21		8
5	Equestrian	22	15	1	6
6=	Tennis	13	13
6=	Diving	13	12		1
8	Basketball	13	12	1
9	Field hockey	12	12
10=	Rowing	11	11
10=	Handball	11	10	1

One statistic may stick out more than any other. The number of lgbt figure skaters who competed in Olympic trials who have never been selected as an Olympic team member or alternate actually outnumbers those who have.

My research never stops. There are about a dozen athletes, past and present, I am still researching. The further back in time we go the less information there is about which events were official qualifying events.

For the time being I am following the progress of known lgbt athletes who hope to appear in the next Winter Games in South Korea in 200 days time. Good luck to them all.