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Gus Kenworthy and Adam Rippon made history in 2018 by being the first openly out, gay male athletes representing the United States in the Winter Olympics. It's been a momentous year for LGBTQ representation, with a reported record number of 15 out LGBTQ athletes, 


That's an accomplishment, after the 2014 Sochi Winter Games saw the arrests of 

"To put it mildly, the Russian government is not friendly to gay and transgender people," 

wrote NPR's Barbara King during the games.

 Openly gay, two-time Olympic snowboarder Belle Brockhoff, of Australia, 

 for her safety during her time in Sochi.
"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play," 

In that spirit, NPR has compiled a non-exhaustive list of out LGBTQ women athletes competing at this year's games — "out" meaning that these athletes have publicly confirmed their LGBTQ identities.


Wüst became the youngest Dutch Olympic champion in the 2006 Winter Games, where she won the gold medal in 3000 meter speed skating event. In Pyeongchang, she took home a gold medal in the 1500 meters and a silver medal in the 3000 meters. The most decorated Dutch Olympic athlete ever has 


Iraschko-Stolz competed in the first women's ski jumping event at the 2014 Winter Games, earning a silver medal. She was one of 15 athletes who sued the organizers of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Games, which featured only men's ski jumping events, for gender discrimination. "It's like a fairytale to win silver at the first" women's event, she


"When liberties are violated there, the IOC must be able to say: we will not go there," the two-time Olympian slopestyle snowboarder said before the Sochi games. "I think the IOC should be more critical when choosing a country." In Russia, the openly lesbian Maas 

to X Games gold medalist Stine Brun Kjeldaas, with whom she has two daughters.


Olympic snowboarder, came out as a lesbian ahead of the 2014 Sochi games. "I want to go there because I'm not afraid of these laws [targeting LGBTQ people] and I want others that live in Russia, who are homosexuals, to see that," she told the BBC. Brockhoff finished 11th in the 2018 women's snowboard cross, just 


Ramboldt, a three-time Olympian ice hockey defenceman, 

Sweden's Female Hockey Player of the Year for the 2014 - 2015 season. She married her wife in 2015, with whom she has a young son. "Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?" 

 Meiler placed 22nd in snowboard cross in Peyongchang, after coming back from a spinal fracture just two years ago. Athletes "have to be ready to give everything and perform wholeheartedly, and in my eyes that's only possible if they can accept and express their sexuality," she 

 for Pančochová, and her first as an openly gay athlete. She competed in the women's slopestyle and "big air" skiing events, and placed 16th in slopestyle. Pančochová 

 that she was "stoked" to come out publicly.


 that she has been harassed and threatened because of her sexuality for years. The first-time Olympian is the 

first athlete to represent Belgium in skeleton

Sports

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have the most openly LGBTQ athletes in history.

LGBTQ women to watch out for in the 2018 games

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