Ireen Wüst has won the first medal for an LGBTQ2S+ athlete at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, adding to her hefty collection of hardware.
The bisexual speed skater from the Netherlands has become the most-decorated out LGBTQ2S+ Olympian ever, with 12 total medals from five Olympics. She won gold in the 1500 metre speed skating event, becoming the first-ever athlete to win gold in individual events at five straight Olympics. Her blistering time of 1:53.28 also set a new Olympic record.
Wüst is the third most-decorated Winter Olympian overall. She was already the Netherlands’ most successful Olympic athlete.
“There’s something magical that gets to me when it comes down to the Games,” the 35-year-old said after her victory, as reported by NPR. “There’s something that brings out the best in me.”
Wüst will have another chance to add to her medal haul when she competes in the 1000 metre event next week. She’ll have tough competition from another fellow out athlete, American Brittany Bowe, who currently holds the world record for that distance. Bowe was the only out LGBTQ2S+ athlete to serve as a flag bearer in the 2022 opening ceremony.
Wüst and Bowe are two of at least 36 out athletes competing in Beijing, according to the LGBTQ2S+ news site Outsports. That represents a record for the Winter Games and is more than double the previous benchmark set in 2018, when a then-record 15 out athletes competed in the PyeongChang Games.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics comes six months after the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo saw more out LGBTQ2S+ athletes than all previous Summer Olympics combined. At least 186 out Olympians competed, winning 32 medals in total.
Other queer athletes have also been on the hunt for medals. The U.K.’s Bruce Mouat finished fourth in mixed doubles curling and hopes to improve in the men’s team event. Figure skaters Jason Brown (U.S.) and Donovan Carrillo (Mexico) finished sixth and 22nd, respectively, with Carrillo becoming the first Mexican skater to make it to the free skate.
Australian snowboarder Bella Brockhoff finished fourth in women’s snowboard cross, but is a reigning world champion in the upcoming mixed team snowboard cross event. Team Sweden’s Sandra Näslund is also a world champion and eyeing a gold in the women’s ski cross event.
Other LGBTQ2S+ medal hopefuls include Canada’s women’s hockey team, which has at least seven out players in its 23-person lineup, and women’s skeleton sliders Kim Meylemans (Belgium) and Nicole Silveira (Brazil), who are dating. Queer figure skaters competing in paired events will also represent Italy, France, the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Armenia at the Olympics.
One of the best-known out Winter Olympians is freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, who won a silver for the U.S. in 2014. He’s since switched to representing his birth country, the U.K., at this, his third Olympics. Last week, he told the BBC that China is “not well suited” to host the Games due to the Chinese government’s human rights abuses.
The Chinese government has faced international criticism for its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and its recent rise in anti-gay actions.
“I think the IOC should take a stance against a lot of these atrocities and stand up for important issues, and by not granting those countries the right to host the Games they could create positive change in those places—maybe not even letting them compete,” Kenworthy said.
Adam Rippon, the former figure skater who became a household name in 2018 as the first out gay male U.S. Winter Olympian to win a medal, also disagreed with the choice of host country.
“In light of all of the human rights violations in China, it does make you question why were they still allowed to host these Games?” Rippon told Reuters. “It makes me think of being rewarded for bad behaviour.”
The Winter Olympics will run until Feb. 20, followed by the Paralympics from Mar. 4 to 13. There are no known out LGBTQ2S+ Winter Paralympians (yet).
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