20 openly gay and lesbian athletes at 2012 London Summer Olympics

The number of openly gay and lesbian athletes at the 2012 London Summer Olympics is ahead of the totals for Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, with all but three being lesbians.

There are 20 openly gay and lesbian London Olympians, plus two coaches.  There are also two gay Paralympians. This compares with 11 in Athens and 10 in Beijing, showing some progress in athletes being public about their sexual orientation, but still a low number.

There was one more lesbian who qualified for London — U.S. wrestler Stephany Lee — but she was kicked off the team last month after testing positive for smoking marijuana. And with softball no longer an Olympic sport, that cut down on the number of potential out athletes. Outsports knows of another male athlete who thought about coming out if he made his Olympic team, but he came up short at the trials.  Read More