Team USA is only country with an openly LGBTQ+ athlete as Olympic flag bearer | TheHill – The Hill
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Three-time Olympic speed skater Brittany Bowe was selected after bobsledder Elena Meyers Taylor tested positive for COVID-19.
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Three-time Olympic speed skater Brittany Bowe, along with five-time Olympic curler John Shuster, led Team USA during the Opening Ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Thursday. At these Olympics, Bowe is the only openly LGBTQ+ athlete to have carried her country’s flag at the ceremony, according to Outsports.
Bowe in leading Team USA replaced three-time Olympic bobsledder Elena Meyers Taylor after Meyers Taylor was forced to isolate following a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
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Bowe is one of the favorites in the women’s 1000-meter skate, scheduled for Feb. 17. She’s also set to compete in the 500-meter and 1500-meter events.
During the 2018 Winter Olympics, openly bisexual speed skater Ireen Wüst carried her native Netherlands flag in the closing ceremony, according to Outsports.
LGBTQ+ representation overall at the year’s Olympic Games more than doubles that of the 2018 Winter Games, with at least 35 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual and nonbinary competitors.
That record-breaking sum is thanks in no small part to the growing number of openly LGBTQ+ male athletes, accounting for one-third of this year’s total. In 2018, just four of the 15 openly LGBTQ+ athletes were men.
A record-breaking 186 openly LGBTQ+ athletes competed at the Summer Games, according to Outsports, bringing home 33 medals.
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