Here’s How the LGBTQ Olympians Did This Weekend

With the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang officially underway, you can’t even go on social media without seeing a figure skater in a cute leotard. It’s almost enough to distract from the president’s total lack of filter on Twitter.

Sure, there are plenty of reasons to tune in. Whether it’s the shirtless oiled-up Tongan or Johnny Weir’s colorful sense of style, the Olympics just naturally come with a hint of queerness.

Opening Ceremonies with the best of US #winterolympics #teamusa

A post shared by Brittany Bowe (@brittanybowe) on Feb 9, 2018 at 6:27pm PST

To give you some idea of how homophobic the sports world still is, it took until this year for us to have an openly gay American man compete in FIGURE SKATING.

Mad respect and huge congrats to @Adaripp. 🇺🇸🌈🙏

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) February 12, 2018

If Adam Rippon wins a medal, Mike Pence has to personally bake a gay wedding cake. Sorry, those are just the rules.

— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) February 12, 2018

But this year, the LGBTQ community, in particular, has plenty to be proud of at the Winter Olympics. With 14 out athletes competing at this year’s games, figure skater Adam Rippon has made headlines as Team USA’s first openly gay Winter Olympian. Along with Gus Kenworthy and Brittany Bowe, he’s bringing LGBTQ representation to Team USA at this year’s games.

And this weekend, Rippon took home bronze in the team event men’s free skate, becoming the first out gay man to win a medal in the Winter Olympics. Team Netherlands’ Ireen Wüst became the first LGBTQ athlete to win a medal this year, taking silver in speed skating. It was followed by Team Canada’s Eric Radford, becoming the first openly gay Winter Olympian to win gold, competing in team figure skating.

YES!! #Gold #Olympic #Pyeongchang2018 #TeamCanada #Figureskating #Pride pic.twitter.com/ZiF8Ch92Bd

— Eric Radford (@Rad85E) February 12, 2018

Other openly LGBTQ Olympians to compete this weekend were the Czech Republic’s Sarka Pancochova in snowboarding, the Netherlands’ Cheryl Maas in snowboarding, Australia’s Barbara Jezeršek in cross country skiing, and Sweden’s Emilia Andersson Ramboldt in ice hockey.

With Rippon taking home bronze, he’s already proved his haters wrong, including Vice President Mike Pence and Fox News’ John Moody. Let’s keep rooting for Team LGBTQ USA at this year’s games.

The REAL one for I did for TV says “my mom” but, like, I needed this one for myself because it was the first thing that actually popped in my head and I thought I was so funny. pic.twitter.com/aC5X7wQ7bY

— Adam Rippon (@Adaripp) February 5, 2018