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Saturday, 7 February 2026

They Didn't Quite Make it to the Olympics

It seems only a few months ago since the Paris Olympics. Perhaps I’m getting old. Perhaps, also, there hasn’t appeared to have been a gap between Paris and last night’s opening of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics because qualifying events for Milan Cortina began even before the Paris Olympics started.

Take ice hockey as an example. The qualification period for the ice hockey tournament began with the start of the 2020 Men’s World Championships, which contributed towards world rankings that decided which nations qualified to Milan. And the women’s ice hockey qualification began with the 2021 Women’s World Championships. The 2926 world ranking also included placings of all Hockey teams at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. So, if the same qualification criteria for is approved for next Winter Olympics, then all the ice hockey teams competing in Milan will have begun their qualification for 2030.

So, you can see that following the Olympics is more than just two weeks every two years for Olympic historians like myself.

Below is a chart of Team LGBT athletes who have competed in Winter Olympic qualification events or appeared in world/Olympic qualification ranking lists who did NOT qualify for the Olympics in the year listed. Many of them did become full Olympians before or after the years shown.

The chart is not authoritative and is not complete. I haven’t had time to research the past competitions of all of Milan’s Olympic first-timers and recently out athletes, to see if they have any previous involvement in Olympic qualification event. I’ve included the ones I already knew about. Regard this list as just a work in progress.

A lot more research is needed to reveal exactly who is eligible for qualification. Is the athlete regarded as sufficiently proficient in his or her sport to be considered eligible, for example? Some of the figure skaters listed below competed in Olympic qualification events when they were teenagers. This wouldn’t necessarily exclude them from qualifying, after all, Ondrej Nepela, was only 13 when he competed for Czechoslovakia in 1964. After the fiasco of Beijing 2022 and the young Russian figure skater, the lower age for figure skating has been raised to 17. It’s all very complicated, and as I said, a lot more research needs to be done.

Another criteria to point out concerns the current debate (or rather, current deliberate confrontation by both sides) on the inclusion of transgender athletes. Sex and gender testing have been part of international sport for decades. For the purposes of the chart below I will point out one name, Erik Schinegger. He competed in women’s alpine skiing in the early 1960s. He had been world champion in 1966, and the Austrian champion in 1967, and Austria’s top hope for gold at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble. In those days the IOC conducted gender tests on all athletes. Erik’s test revealed he was actually intersex, and was immediately banned from competing in all alpine skiing events. Erik chose to accept the decision and just as immediately began identifying as a man. Erik still something of a sporting celebrity. He appeared in the Austrian version of “Dancing With the Stars” in 2014. He now runs a skiing school in Austria. I wonder if he’ll be pooping over the border to watch the alpine skiing in Cortina, which is only a couple of hours away from his ski school

But I’ve rambled too much. Enjoy the list below. The list gives the year and host city of each Winter games. The name, nation and sport of each athlete is given underneath it. The OLY column indicates the number of Olympic Games in which the athlete has competed (either before or after their unsuccessful qualification year). “Alt.” indicates that the athletes became an Alternate team member, designated to replace any official Olympic team member in cases of injury or other incapacitation.

After it’s all over I’ll produce a complete Team LGBT Winter Olympian List.

1964 INNSBRUCK

OLY

John Carrell

USA

figure skating

 

Dennis Sveum

USA

ice dance

 

Wynn Miller

USA

ice dance

 

 

1968 GRENOBLE

OLY

Erik Schinegger

Austria

alpine skiing

 

Rick Inglesi

USA

figure skating

 

John Carrell

USA

figure skating

 

 

1972 SAPPORO

OLY

Robert Knapp

Canada

ice dance

 

 

1980 LAKE PLACID

OLY

Brian Orser

Canada

figure skating

2

Rob McCall

Canada

ice dance

2

Barry Hagan

USA

figure skating

 

Robert Wagenhoffer

USA

figure skating

 

Larry Schrier

USA

pairs skating

 

 

1984 SARAJEVO

OLY

Perry Meek

Australia

figure skating

 

Dennis Coi

Canada

figure skating

 

J. Scott Driscoll

USA

figure skating

 

Rudy Galindo

USA

figure skating

 

Darin Hosier

USA

figure skating

 

William Lawe

USA

figure skating

 

Doug Mattis

USA

figure skating

 

Caroline Paul

USA

luge

 

 

1988 CALGARY

OLY

Michael Chack

USA

figure skating

 

Philip DiGuglielmo

USA

figure skating

 

Rudy Galindo

USA

figure skating

 

Brian Grant

USA

figure skating

 

Doug Mattis

USA

figure skating

 

Mark Mitchell

USA

figure skating

Alt.

Grant Rorvick

USA

figure skating

 

Lance Travis

USA

figure skating

Alt.

Shawn Rettstatt

USA

pairs skating

 

 

1992 ALBERTVILLE

OLY

Damon Allen

USA

figure skating

 

Michael Chack

USA

figure skating

 

Derrick Delmore

USA

figure skating

 

Rudy Galindo

USA

figure skating

 

 

1994 LILLEHAMMER

OLY

Matthew Hall

Canada

figure skating

Alt.

Damon Allen

USA

figure skating

 

Derrick Delmore

USA

figure skating

 

Rudy Galindo

USA

figure skating

 

Mark Mitchell

USA

figure skating

Alt.

Russ Witherby

USA

pairs skating

1

 

1998 NAGANO

OLY

Francis Bureau

Canada

figure skating

 

Jeff Buttle

Canada

figure skating

1 & Alt.

Bradley Dalziel

Canada

figure skating

 

Joel Geleynse

Canada

figure skating

 

Christopher Mabee

Canada

figure skating

 

Tyler Myles

Canada

figure skating

 

Emanuel Sandhu

Canada

figure skating

2

Angela James

Canada

ice hockey

 

Sacha Blanchet

Canada

pairs skating

 

Michael Chack

USA

figure skating

 

Derrick Delmore

USA

figure skating

 

Josh Figurido

USA

figure skating

 

Timothy Goebel

USA

figure skating

1

Benjamin Miller

USA

figure skating

 

Matt Savoie

USA

figure skating

1

Eric Schroyer

USA

figure skating

 

Matt Evers

USA

pairs skating

 

 

2002 SALT LAKE CITY

OLY

Cédric Demers

Canada

figure skating

 

Christopher Mabee

Canada

figure skating

 

Keegan Murphy

Canada

figure skating

 

Tyler Myles

Canada

figure skating

 

Shawn Sawyer

Canada

figure skating

1

Frouke Oonk

Netherlands

speed skating

 

Cole Davis

USA

figure skating

 

Derrick Delmore

USA

figure skating

 

Benjamin Miller

USA

figure skating

 

Matt Savoie

USA

figure skating

1

Rohene Ward

USA

figure skating

 

Johnny Weir

USA

figure skating

2

Ryan O'Meara

USA

ice dance

1

Tricia Stumpf

USA

skeleton

 

Ryan Miller

USA

snowboard

 

 

2006 TURIN

OLY

Chavdar Arsov

Bulgaria

luge

 

Cédric Demers

Canada

figure skating

 

Ian Fotheringham

Canada

figure skating

 

Ehren Jaleel(-Wenrich)

Canada

figure skating

 

Pierre-Philippe Joncas

Canada

figure skating

 

Jean-Simon Légaré

Canada

figure skating

 

Christopher Mabee

Canada

figure skating

 

Keegan Murphy

Canada

figure skating

 

Jeremy Ten

Canada

figure skating

 

Frédéric Allain

Canada

ice dance

 

Eric Radford

Canada

pairs skating

3

Marieke Wijsman

Netherlands

speed skating

2

Frouke Oonk

Netherlands

speed skating

 

Cole Davis

USA

figure skating

 

Derrick Delmore

USA

figure skating

 

Scott Dyer

USA

figure skating

 

Timothy Goebel

USA

figure skating

1

Rohene Ward

USA

figure skating

 

Drew Meekins

USA

pairs skating

 

Keith Carney

USA

speed skating

 

 

2010 VANCOUVER

OLY

John Epping

Canada

curling

 

Evan Gammon

Canada

figure skating

 

Garrett Gosselin

Canada

figure skating

 

Ehren Jaleel(-Wenrich)

Canada

figure skating

 

Shawn Sawyer

Canada

figure skating

1

Benjamin Smyth

Canada

figure skating

 

Garnet Suidy

Canada

figure skating

 

Jeremy Ten

Canada

figure skating

 

Benjamin Westenberger

Canada

figure skating

 

Kaitlyn Weaver

Canada

ice dance

1

Eric Radford

Canada

pairs skating

3

Jamal Othman

Switzerland

figure skating

1

Camille Balanche

Switzerland

ice hockey

 

Tracy Call

USA

bobsleigh

 

Jason Brown

USA

figure skating

2

Christopher Caluza

USA

figure skating

 

Wesley Campbell

USA

figure skating

 

Scott Dyer

USA

figure skating

 

Timothy LeDuc

USA

pairs skating

1 & Alt.

Keith Carney

USA

speed skating

 

 

2014 SOCHI

OLY

Laís Souza

Brazil

freestyle skiing

 

John Epping

Canada

curling

 

Garrett Gosselin

Canada

figure skating

 

Benjamin Smyth

Canada

figure skating

 

Jeremy Ten

Canada

figure skating

 

Paul Poirier

Canada

ice dance

3

Eric Mitchell

Canada

ski jumping

1

Arieta Lédlová

Czech Rep.

ice hockey

1

Natalia Zabiiako

Estonia

pairs skating

1

Kévin Aymoz

France

figure skating

1

Manon Kamminga

Netherlands

speed skating

 

Christopher Caluza

Philippines

figure skating

 

Luis Fenero

Spain

ice dance

 

Johanna Fallman

Sweden

ice hockey

2

Scott Dyer

USA

figure skating

 

Adam Rippon

USA

figure skating

1 & Alt.

Megan Wessenberg

USA

figure skating

 

Joe Johnson

USA

ice dance

 

Rachel Parsons

USA

ice dance

1

Nick Traxler

USA

ice dance

 

Timothy LeDuc

USA

pairs skating

1 & Alt.

Jimmy Morgan

USA

pairs skating

 

 

2018 PYEONGCHANG

OLY

Simon Proulx-Sénécal

Armenia

ice dance

1

Nicole Silveira

Brazil

bobsleigh

2

John Epping

Canada

curling

 

Dustin Kidby

Canada

curling

 

Paul Poirier

Canada

ice dance

3

Kaitlyn Weaver

Canada

ice dance

1

Emerance Maschmeyer

Canada

ice hockey

2

Jaime Lee Rattray

Canada

ice hockey

1

Georgia Simmerling

Canada

ski-cross

2

Arieta Lédlová

Czech Rep.

ice hockey

1

Kévin Aymoz

France

figure skating

1

Bruce Mouat

Great Britain

curling

2

Letitia de Jong

Netherlands

speed skating

 

Andrzej Stękala

Poland

ski-jumping

 

Javier Raya

Spain

figure skating

1

Anna Kjellbin

Sweden

ice hockey

2

Scott Dyer

USA

figure skating

 

Amber Glenn

USA

figure skating

1 & Alt.

Megan Wessenberg

USA

figure skating

 

Joe Johnson

USA

ice dance

 

Marina Manta

USA

ice dance

 

Rachel Parsons

USA

ice dance

1

Alex Carpenter

USA

ice hockey

1

Fennell, John

USA

luge

2

Andrew Blaser

USA

skeleton

1

 

2020 LAUSANNE (YOUTH)

OLY

Ronja Mogren

Sweden

ice hockey

1

 

2022 BEIJING

OLY

John Epping

Canada

curling

 

Wesley Forget

Canada

curling

 

Dustin Kidby

Canada

curling

 

Geneviève Lacasse

Canada

ice hockey

2

Geneviève Lacasse

Canada

ice hockey

2

Matilda Nilsson

Finland

ice hockey

 

Chloé Auraud

France

ice hockey

 

Anthony Currie

Great Britain

ice dance

 

Cheryl Maas

Netherlands

snowboard

3

Andrzej Stękala

Poland

ski-jumping

 

Elena Stern

Switzerland

curling

1

Gracie Gold

USA

figure skating

1

Megan Wessenberg

USA

figure skating

 

Sidney Morin

USA

ice hockey

1

Amanda Pelkey

USA

ice hockey

1

Kendall Wesenberg

USA

skeleton

1

Breezy Johnson

USA

alpine skiing

2

Conor McDermott-Mostowy

USA

speed skating

1

 

2026 MILAN CORTINA

OLY

Belle Brockhoff

Australia

snowboard

3

John Epping

Canada

curling

 

Jaime Lee Rattray

Canada

ice hockey

 

Jill Saulnier

Canada

ice hockey

2

Micah Zandee-Hart

Canada

ice hockey

1

Kristen Campbell

Canada

ice hockey

1

Mélodie Daoust

Canada

ice hockey

3

Arieta Lédlová

Czech Rep.

ice hockey

1

Šárka Pančochova

Czech Rep.

snowboard

4

Sanni Hakala

Finland

ice hockey

2

Matilda Nilsson

Finland

ice hockey

 

Andrzej Stękala

Poland

ski-jumping

 

Ebba Berglund

Sweden

ice hockey

1

Johanna Fallman

Sweden

ice hockey

2

Jason Brown

USA

figure skating

1

Megan Wessenberg

USA

figure skating

 

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