The LGBT athletes making history at the 2018 Winter Olympics

Pyeongchang’s Olympics have seen athletes more open and public about their sexuality than ever before, with Canada’s Eric Radford becoming the first out Olympian to claim gold at a Winter Games.

Radford clinched gold in the team figure skating event on Monday, alongside his skating partner Meagan Duhamel. He posed afterwards for a photo with another out medalist from the event - Adam Rippon of the USA who took bronze. Radford came out in December 2014, after winning silver in the previous Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy had set the tone for an open LGBT Olympics on the opening day, with a Twitter post picturing him with Rippon‏, stating: “We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it.” 

Before the Games, Kenworthy was a vocal critic of the decision to send vice -president Mike Pence as head of the US delegation. He said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show: “It just seems such a strange choice for me. To have someone leading the delegation that’s directly attacked the LGBT community. It just seems like a bad fit.”

Netherlands speed-skater Ireen Wüst is one of the most successful LGBT athletes in Olympic history, having picked up 10 medals since making her debut in the 2006 Turin Games. She won her fifth gold on Monday. Wüst is bisexual, and in a relationship with long-distance skater Letitia de Jong, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for Pyeongchang herself.

However, like many LGBT athletes throughout Olympic history, Wüst has wrestled with the impact on her career of coming out. “Will you then be known as Ireen the speedskater, or Ireen who has a girlfriend? That was a struggle” she once said.  Read more via the Guardian