The 2018 Winter Olympics is here and we’re excited for the number of LGBTQ women athletes that will be participating at the event!
As of last count, there are ten lesbian or bisexual athletes who will be there. These include:
LGBTQ women athletes #1: Ireen Wüst
Wüst (Netherlands, Speed Skating) is considered speed skating royalty and the most successful female Winter Olympian in the history of Netherlands. She won gold medals in the 3,000 meters and team pursuit, as well as three silvers in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Openly bisexual, she married Letitia de Jong in 2017. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #2: Cheryl Maas
Maas (Netherlands, Snowboard) is the first Dutch athlete to get a medal at the XGames. Now on her third Olympics, she grabbed attention at Sochi for openly defying the “gay propaganda” law with a raised rainbow unicorn glove to cameras. She is currently married to Stine Brun Kjeldaas of Norway and they have two daughters. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #3: Daniela Iraschko-Stolz
Iraschko-Stolz (Austria, Ski jumping) is on her second Olympics, winning a silver medal in Sochi. She garnered the women’s ski flying record at 200 meters in 2003. She married her wife, Isabel Stoltz, in 2013. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #4: Barbara Jezeršek
Jezeršek (Australia, Cross-country skiing) is representing Australia in the 2018 Winter Olympics, but she represented her native-born Slovenia in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics wherein she finished at the top 20 for the skiathlon events in Vancouver and Sochi. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #5: Belle Brockhoff
Brockhoff (Australia, Snowboard cross) fought to be on the Australia’s Winter Olympics team, given a bad knee injury in early 2017. She was the first Australian to get a medal at the World Cup for snowboarding. She came out as a lesbian in 2013 in protest against the Russia “gay propaganda” law before the 2014 Sochi Games. She is the vocal face of Principle 6, the Olympic charter’s nondiscrimination statement. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #6: Emilia Andersson Ramboldt
Ramboldt (Sweden, Ice hockey) is a defender on Sweden’s ice hockey team. She represented Sweden at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver though she has represented both Sweden and Canada in international competitions. She married her wife, Anna Ramboldt, in 2015. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #7: Brittany Bowe
Bowe (US, Speedskating) made her Olympic debut at the 2014 Sochi though she didn’t win any medals. However, she has topped the 500- and 1,500-meters, while also qualifying at the 1,000-meters. She has a relationship with speedskater Manon Kamminga of the Netherlands. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #8: Simona Meiler
Meiler (Switzerland, Snowboarding) will be on her third Olympics, after representing Switzerland in the 2014 Sochi Games. She signed a petition asking the International Olympic Committee to pressure Russia to reconsider their anti-LGBT laws. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #9: Sarka Pancochova
Pancochova (Czech Republic, Snowboarding) is on her third Olympic outing but her first as as an openly LGBT athlete. She competed in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Vancouver and the 2014 Sochi Olympics. She came out in March 2017. (Photo source)
LGBTQ women athletes #10: Sophie Vercruyssen
Vercruyssen (Belgium, Bobsled) took up the sport of bobsled in 2014 after switching from basketball. She related that she was watching the 2014 Olympics on TV and thought she would try it out. She won a silver at the European Championships in 2016. (Photo source)
