An Out Athlete Already Won Big at the Beijing Winter Olympics

The Olympics are barely underway, and LGBTQ+ athletes are already starting to secure major wins!

Team Great Britain curler Bruce Mouat, 27, and his ally partner Jennifer Dodds walked away with a victory over the Oskar Eriksson and Almida De Val of Team Sweden competitors by a score of 9-5.

Mouat, who came out publicly in 2014, is fresh off a gold medal performance at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Championship representing Scotland, and he and Dodds have eight more matches to go before moving onto the round where you compete for medals.

Mouat said he's found the sport of curling to be accepting and affirming.

"The curling community has always been very supportive. I've never had any issues with anyone," Mouat told the BBC recently. "It didn't matter that I was maybe a wee bit different to the other guys I was playing with and against. We're all just athletes at the end of the day trying to compete for the same thing, regardless of sexuality and who we want to spend our lives with."

Out, LGBTQ+ Olympians are looking to improve on their record performance at the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. There were at least 55 LGBTQ+ Olympians and many, like Tom Daley, took medals home. LGBTQ+ athletes also swept the women's soccer event, winning the triple crown of gold, silver, and bronze.

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