Team LGBTQ finished the 2024 Paris Olympics in 7th place in the total medal count with 42 total medals, by far the most ever won by the collective Team LGBTQ. That’s ahead of every single country that criminalizes being gay, and it’s not far behind Japan’s 45 medals.
Outsports tracks all of the publicly out LGBTQ athletes together as Team LGBTQ, as though the out athletes made up a country’s team of their own. At the Tokyo Olympics, the 186 out LGBTQ athletes would have also finished 10th overall in the total medal count, if they were their own country.
The medal count for Team LGBTQ at the Paris Olympics came in at: 15 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 14 bronze medals.
If we measured with the traditional gold-silver-bronze method of ranking the medal count, Team LGBTQ would actually be in 6th place. That would, again, be Team LGBTQ’s best-ever finish — in Tokyo they finished in 7th.
Outsports counts a team medal as one medal, just as other medal counts do. For example, there are at least four out women on the USA women’s rugby sevens team. That counts as one medal, for the entire team.
Currently with 195 out athletes and 42 overall medals, Team LGBTQ has the 14th most athletes of the “nations” competing at these Paris Olympics. Athletes can still be added to the list of publicly out gay, lesbian, bi and trans athletes competing at these Olympics. So the size of Team LGBTQ’s contingent may still increase as we learn of more athletes living their lives openly.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
At the Tokyo Olympics, with 186 athletes, Team LGBTQ finished 7th overall with 33 medals. The overall medal count is over 25% higher in Paris.
Outsports ranks Team LGBTQ based on total medals. Some publications and organizations rank teams based on number of gold medals first, then silver, then bronze. It’s an art, not a science.
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Possibly the most publicly out team of LGBTQ athletes and coaches at the Paris Olympics, over half of the Team USA women’s basketball team, and a couple coaches and staff, were publicly out. They beat host France in the gold medal match, 67-66.
Paola Egonu helped stop the United States from winning back-to-back Olympic gold medals, as Italy beat the USA in the final, 3-0.
Tierna Davidson was the only publicly out LGBTQ athlete to play for the United States in the gold medal match against Brazil. USA topped Brazil and retiring legend Marta, 1-0.
Sha’Carri Richardson followed up her 100-meter silver medal with gold in the women’s 4×100-meter relay, taking the baton in fourth place and lifting Team USA to gold on the final leg.
After winning gold and silver at the last two World Championships, Ana Patricia won gold with teammate Duda, beating the Canadian team, 2-1.
The Netherlands defeated China in a shootout in the final of the women’s field hockey competition, as goalie Anne Veenendaal stepped up big. The Dutch beat the Chinese in the shootout, 3-1.
Lara Vadlau and her mixed-gender dinghy partner, Lukas Maehr, won the first gold medal of the Paris Olympics for Austria.
Champion again in the 60kg (lightweight) category, Kellie Harrington is a back-to-back gold medalist and the first woman to achieve this feat in Ireland’s Olympic history.
Maria Perez won gold in the marathon race walk mixed relay, after earning a silver medal in the individual 20km event.
Svenja Brunckhorst is a professional basketball player in Germany and France who won gold for the German team.
Frederic Wandres earned gold in the team dressage event.
Amandine Buchard followed up her individual bronze medal with a mixed-team gold for France.
Alice Bellandi won Italy’s first Olympic gold in judo since 2008. It was her second Olympic Games.
Lauren Scruggs followed up her individual silver medal in women’s foil with a team gold medal, along with the woman who beat her for gold, Lee Kiefer.
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe won her second straight Olympic gold, and third Olympic medal, in rugby for New Zealand.
Haleigh Washington and the United States women’s volleyball team followed up on their Tokyo Olympic gold with silver in Paris, losing in the final to Italy, 3-0.
The women’s soccer team of Brazil had the second most out LGBTQ athletes of any squad at the Paris Olympics, with at least eight (Australia had 12). The Brazilians lost to the USA in the gold medal match, 1-0.
Marianne Vos won silver in the women’s road race. It’s her first Olympic medal since gold in 2012.
Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour helped the Danes earn the silver medal in team dressage.
After a bronze women’s team medal in Tokyo, Michelle Kroppen earned silver in Paris in the mixed team event.
Sha’Carri Richardson won a silver medal in the 100-meter dash, three years after her crushing removal from Team USA.
Emma Twigg ended her Olympic career with a silver medal in single sculls.
Maria Perez won a silver medal in the 20k race walk after finishing just off the medal podium in fourth at the Tokyo Olympics. She later won gold in the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay.
Raz Hershko followed up her mixed-team bronze medal in Tokyo with an individual silver medal in Paris, in the +78kg category.
Perris Benegas hadn’t won a medal on the international stage until her silver medal in Paris. She celebrated by kissing her girlfriend.
Canada’s silver medal in women’s rugby sevens was a surprise to Australia, whom they beat in the semifinals.
Tom Daley won his fifth medal at the Olympics — and his first silver — in the 10-meter platform synchro competition, with diving partner Noah Williams. It was a family affair for Daley.
Lauren Scruggs won a silver medal for the USA in what was the event’s first all-American final in women’s individual foil. Having entered the tournament ranked 11th in the world, Scruggs’ runner-up spot was a lovely turn of events. She would later help her team to gold as well.
Australia’s women’s basketball team returned to its Olympic form, winning a bronze medal for its first medal since 2012. Before the drought, the Aussies had won a medal in five straight Olympics.
Brazil beat Turkey, 3-1, in the bronze-medal match of the women’s indoor volleyball tournament. Brazil had been in three of the last four Summer Olympics finals.
Germany, with at least four out LGBTQ players, beat Spain for the women’s soccer bronze medal, 1-0. Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger had a late save on a penalty kick.
After winning the 2023 World Championship, Laura Aarts and her Netherlands team got bronze at the Paris Olympics, beating out the United States, 11-10.
Cindy Ngamba became the first athlete from the Refugee Olympic Team to ever win a medal at a Games, taking bronze in women’s 75kg (middleweight) boxing after a loss in the semifinal to Atheyna Bylon of Panama.
Nesthy Petecio won a 57kg (featherweight) bronze medal in what is likely her final Olympic Games.
Beatriz Ferreira won her second Olympic medal, taking bronze after a loss to Kellie Harrington in the semifinal of the 60kg (lightweight) category.
Carl Hester won his fourth Olympic medal, this time a bronze in team dressage.
Rafaela Silva didn’t earn an individual medal at these Olympics, but she was able to win a bronze in mixed-team judo.
Evy Leibfarth is the first American to compete in three canoe and kayak disciplines at an Olympic Games, coming away with a somewhat surprising bronze medal in the C1 canoe slalom.
Tabea Schendekehl had won two collegiate national titles in the United States before helping power the German quad sculls rowing team to a bronze.
Natalya Diehm won a bronze in BMX Freestyle, the first Olympic medal for Australia in the sport.
The United States earned its first-ever Olympic medal in rugby sevens, with some of the out athletes playing a major part.
Amandine Buchard followed up her individual silver medal in the 52kg category in Tokyo with a bronze medal in front of her home crowd. She later took gold for the hosts in the mixed team event.
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Outsports will be tracking the medal count for Team LGBTQ, and seeing where the team ranks against the participating nations, every day during the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
