Olympic Alphabet : Y is for ...

YOUTH

Some of the most memorable moments at the Olympics and Paralympics have featured very young athletes. The growth of the number of talented young athletes was one reason why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) created the Youth Olympics. The first was held in 2010. Today we look at the lgbt Olympians between the ages of 14 and 19, the age limit of Youth Olympians.

As of today’s date there has been 31 identified lgbt teenagers who would have qualified for the Youth Olympics. In addition there has been at least 4 others who have acted as alternate or reserve Olympians.

Athletes at the Youth Olympics must be aged 15, 16, 17, or 18 by December 31^st of the year in which the games are held. This means that athletes who were 14 can still compete as long as their 15^th birthday falls in that same year. It also means that no athlete over the age of 18 can compete. At that age it is unlikely that there will ever be many openly lgbt athletes at the Youth Olympics, though they may come out later. So far there have been just two who have come out and went on to compete at the main Olympic games – diver Tom Daley and luger John Fennell.

Logo of the Youth Olympics

The age limit shows up a strange anomaly. Tom Daley competed in his first Olympics in Beijing in 2008. He was just a couple of months past his 14^th birthday. His 15^th birthday was the following year. If the Beijing Olympics were the Youth Olympics Tom would have been too young to qualify. He competed at the first Youth Olympics in Singapore two years later.

An even greater anomaly would have occurred in the case of gay figure skater Ondrej Nepela. His first Olympics were the winter games of Innsbruck 1964. Those games started only a week after his 13^th birthday. He would not have been eligible to compete at the Youth Olympics, had they existed, until January 1966. Even in Rio this year there were athletes too young to qualify for the Youth Olympics.

The youngest female Olympians competed when they were 15. Brazilian gymnast Lais Souza made her Olympic debut in Athens 2004. Canada’s swimmer Marion Lay was also 15 when she competed in Rome 1964 when she reached the finals of three events.

Starting young is no guarantee of future success. On the 31 14-18 year olds in our group 13 have competed only once. Several of them are still competing so could possibly return in Pyong Chang 2018 or Tokyo 2020. It is unlikely that any will return to the Youth Olympics.

The uncertainty of gender identification in teenagers sheds a different light on one of the earliest gender controversies at the Olympics.

At the Berlin Olympics of 1936 17-year-old Dora Ratjen competed in the women’s high jump contest. Two years later Dora was arrested on suspicion of being a man dressed as a woman. A doctor made a physical examination and confirmed that Dora was a man but the there was something wasn’t quite right about sexual organs.

To cut a very long story short, Dora had been born with a physical condition which even confused the midwife. It appears to have been some form of intersexuality. As a result the midwife declared her to be a girl and that is how Dora was raised. Today, 17-year-olds are more aware of gender and sexuality issues, but how much could Dora understand in 1938? Calls were made strip her of all her world championship titles, and even recent documentaries have accused her of deliberately posing as a man.

After the controversy Dora lived her life as a man with the name of Heinrich. Perhaps she was influenced by the perception of gender in the 1930s. The documentary evidence seems to indicate that she was intersex and was “persuaded” to identify as male because she was not being regarded as female.

Despite these setbacks to teenage athletes there have been some spectacular successes. Lgbt teenagers have fared quite well at the Olympics. Between 8 of them there have been 15 medal-winning performances.

Five of the 15 medals have been won by one teenager, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe. At his Olympic debut at the Sydney 2000 games at the age of 17 he was already a national hero and international champion. At the Sydney games he added 3 gold and 2 silver medals to his already impressive tally of medals. It’s no wonder that he tops the all-time lgbt Olympian medal list.

Here is a list of all the 15 to 18 years olds who have won medals.

 

Name	Age	Nation	Sport	Olympics	G	S	B
Raelene Boyle	17	Australia	track	1968 Mexico City		1
Karin Büttner-Janz	16	East Germany	gymnastics	1968 Mexico City		1	1
Tom Daley	18	GB	diving	2012 London			1
Ewa Kłobukowska	18	Poland	track	1964 Tokyo	1		1
Greg Louganis	16	USA	diving	1976 Montréal		1
Ronnie Robertson	18	USA	figure skating	1956 Cortina		1
Helen Stephens	18	USA	track	1936 Berlin	2
Ian Thorpe	17	Australia	swimming	2000 Sydney	3	2

 
As we eagerly anticipate the start of the Rio Paralympics tonight we should not forget about the teenagers who have competed at those games. As with the Youth Olympics there have been no known out lgbt athletes at any of the Youth Paralympic games. There are, however, two who have competed at the main Paralympics. Neither of them were out as lgbt at the time. 

Name	Age	Nation	Sport	Paralympics
Jen Armbruster	17	USA	goalball	1992 Barcelona
David Hill	15	GB	swimming	2004 Athens