Every couple of years, the world sends its most in-shape humans to battle it out in various sports arenas for the enjoyment of everyone as they compete in the Olympics. And while the sports Hunger Games are a fun opportunity to take some pride in their own country’s athletes, the Olympics are invariably a time when athletes will capture your heart regardless of the country they represent. It’s not your fault, and it’s not treason – watching someone’s lifelong dream come true, or watching them nearly achieve it and fall short, is a relatively rare intimacy to experience in everyday life and we’re exposed to it on a huge scale during the Olympics.
And of COURSE you’re going to fall in love with the muscles and the smiles and the down-to-Earth, hardworking personalities of the athletes sweating it out for the gold, it’s practically science.But it’s also important to remember the absolute struggle it was for many athletes to even make it to the Olympics on physical standards alone, and then factor in how many of them grapple with additional factors like battling stigma about gender and sexuality in sports and WOW you’ve got some tough, driven folks to admire.
With that in mind, here are five out lesbian and bisexual women athletes from all over the globe to cheer for in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. If we’ve missed anyone who is publicly out, please let us know so we can add them to the celebrations!
Ireen Wüst
Ireen Wüst. Image via Twitter.
Country: Netherlands
Sport: Speed skating
Twitter handle: @Ireenw
If you’ve watched the Winter Olympics for the past 12 years, you’ve probably seen Ireen Wüst, a powerhouse speed skater for an already-dominant Netherlands team. Wüst boasts four gold medals, three silvers, and a bronze already in her collection, and she’s going for more gold in South Korea. She won gold in Turin in 2006 at age 19, becoming the youngest-ever Olympic champion in speed skating for the Netherlands. Oh, and she’s also been out as bisexual since 2009; her partner, Letitia de Jong, is also a competitive speed skater.
Barbara Jezeršek
Barbara Jezeršek. Photo via Twitter.
Country: Australia
Sport: Cross Country Skiing
Twitter handle: @JezersekBarbara
Barbara Jezeršek is a tried Olympian, competing for her native Slovenia in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She’s been competing professionally since 2003, and became an Australian citizen who will now compete for Team G’Day Mate in Pyeongchang. Jezeršek was one of several outspoken queer athletes in Russia who protested the anti-LGBT laws passed there.
Belle Brockhoff
Belle Brockhoff. Photo via Twitter.
Country: Australia
Sport: Snowboarding
Twitter: @bellebrockhoff
Speaking of outspoken Australians, snowboarder Belle Brockhoff came out as gay in 2013 in order to protest the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Brockhoff suffered a serious knee injury a few months ago, rupturing a knee ligament, but was still selected for the Australian team as she continues to recover.
Daniela Iraschko-Stolz
Daniela Iraschko-Stolz. Image via Twitter.
Country: Austria
Sport: Ski Jumping
Twitter: @DanieXIraX
When Daniela Iraschko-Stolz won the silver in Sochi in 2014 for ski jumping, she became the second openly gay athlete to medal in Russia. Before heading to the 2014 Olympics, she married her partner Isabel Stolz in 2013, telling the Kurier newspaper at the time, “I don’t want to hide myself…I never cared at all what other people think about me.”
Cheryl Maas
Cheryl Maas. Image via Twitter
Country: Netherlands
Sport: Snowboarding
Twitter: @cherylmaas
You probably remember Cheryl Maas from her Sochi snowboarding salute to LGBT rights, when she held up gloves, covered in rainbows and unicorns, in view of the cameras after a run. It was an act of protest against the Russian anti-LGBT laws, and Maas is back this year for her third Olympics. Maas is married to former snowboarder Stine Brun Kjedlaas, and the couple has two children.
Yay. I was waiting for this list. Too bad there are no out American women athletes (although I’m really psyched for the men).
And can I just say – my new fantasy girlfriend is an Olympic snowboarder (sorry Scarlet Johannson).
Also I recently read a really great lesbian romance that cemented my fantasy girlfriend. Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler – two Olympic athletes, a very serious alpine skier and a focused but goofball snowboarder, meet at a US training camp and sparks fly.
That’s the next book on my list!
Now I can finally relate to all my classmates who had crushes on snowboarders.
just a tiny correction: iraschko-stolz is not married, she’s in a civil partnership. same sex marriage will be possible in austria from the 1st of january 2019…
hi hello!
thanks for pointing out the legal stuff — january 2019 is so close yet so far away!
i said married because that’s what she says herself in this tweet: https://twitter.com/DanieXIraX/status/374163423262953472
I know, most partnered up couples in austria referred to themselves as married, cause hardly anyone believed that marriage equality would ever happen… :)
i’m so thrilled it’s happening, though. really, it’s so good.
Hey, pro tip, Brittany Bowe, an American speed skater, is at least dating a woman- she talks about her girlfriend in this interview: http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/qa-brittany-bowe.
what KIND of girlfriend, tho, you know?
Point taken. But maybe!
She has been pretty open in some Dutch interviews about her relationship with Manon Kamminga. This one from a year ago mentions they’ve been together for over two years: https://www.helden.media/rubrieken/uit-helden/gelukkig-in-de-liefde/
The couple:
The HRC actually confirmed that that girlfriend is a Girlfriend™ in an article this morning! http://www.hrc.org/blog/meet-the-openly-lgbtq-athletes-competing-at-the-winter-olympics
80% in two countries that contain less than 0.6% of the world’s population between them. That’s a pretty good per-capita output of lesbian and bisexual winter-olympian women.
I’m still heartbroken for Georgia Simmerling who would’ve been repping team Canada… if she didn’t break both legs a bit over a week ago. :(
oh my god my face when i read this went from like, “oh bummer someone didn’t make it” to “OH NOOOOOOO”
She appears to be taking it a million times better than I would. She’s a champ.
And at least she has her gf, Canada soccer goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé and her equally adorable dog to help keep her spirits up. So that’s something.
But to have that not only happen but SO CLOSE to the Olympics… Geez man.
I saw that on Instagram! Such a huge bummer.
I just did an image search for Barbara Jezeršek and now my teeth hurt like I just ate a giant piece of chocolate cake. Highly recommended activity, especially if very defined abs are your thing
i should have put a warning about looking up pics of these athletes because you will lose productivity and maybe days
Yep, I already have a thing about following female outdoors athletes and weightlifters on Instagram so this is an easy rabbit hole to go down!
Um I was not prepared for the adonis belt and the guyliner.
Tiny baby shesus I was not prepared.
LOL I know. I wanted to know more about her, you know, like as an athlete. And I was also not prepared.
OH. Oh, my. Thank you for the image-search suggestion.
May I just mention that „Stolz“ is the german word for pride. So that might be the gayest surname ever. Already a fan, go Daniela!
YES THIS IS AMAZING
Yay Netherlands!