Lesbian Sportswomen Throughout History

... the 600, and 1,000 metre distances. At the age of 12 Kelly, started training for athletics, joining Tonbridge Athletics Club and in her second season (1983), she won the English Schools 1,500 metres. A month before her 18 birthday she joined the British Army becoming a basic physical training instructor and qualified as a sergeant class 1 PTI. In the army she kept up her personal training and became the British Army judo champion and at an athletics event won an 800 metres, a 3,000 metres and a relay race in the same day! After watching the 1992 Barcelona Games on television she was inspired to return to competitive athletics. For several years she combined athletics with serving in the army, until increased funding allowed her to become a full-time athlete in 1997. Kelly retired from athletics in 2005 and has become a global motivational speaker and author.

Honours
1998 - Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
2005 - Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)
2010 - inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame.
2018 - made honorary colonel of the Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment (RACTR)

In June 2022, in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Kelly came out as gay - WOW, I thought she came out mega years ago! Kelly revealed that she had known she was a lesbian since 1988 when a fellow female army soldier kissed her in the bathroom block. As it was illegal at the time to be gay in the British Army she could not come out as it risked being jailed, court martial, dismissal and any medals received being taken away.

Moreover, after winning 2 Olympic gold medals at Athens in 2004 and becoming a public figure, she feared there would still be consequences from the army even after she had left the army, and that she might be shunned within athletics as there were no publicly gay sportspeople she knew of.

Later that month, ITV broadcast a documentary Kelly Holmes: Being Me in which she describes her fears of her sexuality being exposed, and meets two people who were discharged from the military for being gay. On Instagram, Kelly wrote: "The documentary taught me so much about generational and social advancements when it comes to the LGBTQ+ world".

NB - With regard to the British Army:

2000 - By law, gay men and lesbian women were banned from serving in the British military until 2000. The Guardian reported that about 200 to 250 service men and women were thrown out each year because of their sexuality, and frequently had their service medals removed.

2021 - Sacked LGBT+ veterans can reclaim lost medals - under a new scheme to remedy historical injustices, former service personnel who were dismissed from the armed forces because of their sexuality can apply to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to restore honours and reclaim their medals which were stripped from them.

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... Sports broadcasting was at the time dominated by men.

Some of her Honours
2003 - Royal Television Society's "Sports Presenter of the Year"
2012 - Attitude Awards TV Personality of the Year
2013 - appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
2013 - awarded a special BAFTA for her work on the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
2013 - Sports Presenter at the Television and Radio Industries Club Awards
2022 - appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

Clare was fearful that coming out as a lesbian would put an end to her broadcasting career. After almost a decade of hiding her sexuality while working at the BBC, she came out as a lesbian in 2003. In September 2006 Clare entered into a civil partnership with Alice Arnold, then a BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader and nine years later they married in a private ceremony.

As an out broadcaster she has had unfair digs made of her regarding to her sexuality.

In July 2010, Clare made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission (PPC) over an article headlined "Humping in tents: a great British tradition" by writer A. A. Gill in The Sunday Times Culture section which she said discriminated against her in breach of Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors' Code of Practice. The article reviewed the Clare Balding's television programme, Britain by Bike. In it, A. A. Gill referred to the Clare Balding as a "dyke on a bike". Clare considered this to be a pejorative reference to her sexuality and irrelevant to the programme. The hurt was compounded by a mock apology by A. A. Gill for previously saying that she looked "like a big lesbian". The PCC found in Clare's favour. The PPC considered that the use of the word "dyke" in the article – whether or not it was intended to be humorous – was a pejorative synonym relating to the complainant’s sexuality. The context was not that the reviewer was seeking positively to "reclaim" the term, but rather to use it to refer to the complainant's sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous way. This was an editorial lapse which represented a breach of the Code, and the newspaper should have apologised at the first possible opportunity.

During Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk, round of "Defend the Indefensible" (2013), presenter Colin Murray asked comedian Bob Mills to comment to "Give me 20 minutes with her and I'm sure I could turn around Clare Balding". (Seriously?) Amongst Mills offensive responses he said "All I am saying is, there is not a woman in the world who cannot be cured". The 5,000 audience at the Liverpool Echo Arena jeered at his comments. After they received complaints from radio listeners, two days later the BBC admitted the broadcast was "inappropriate," and apologised to anyone who was offended by the programme." Incredulously they didn't apologies to Clare Balding.

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...
3 golds - World Championships 1994 & 1976 & World Cup (1977)
4 silvers - World Cup (1998 - 2001)
5 bronze - World Championships (1993, 1996 & 2002) & World Cup (1993-94)

She earned the nickname "The Missile" not just for flying down courses during which she reportedly broke more than 30 bones, but for her explosive personality. Oops - in 2009, Missy was arrested in Wilton, New York on charges of conspiring to possess and distribute 384 lbs (174 kg - that's almost 3.5 times my weight!) of marijuana (worth $12,515,738) some of which was found hidden in a car trailer she was driving during a routine traffic stop. She, pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to 5 years on probation and 6 months under house arrest

She is an out lesbian who has appeared on the cover of Deneuve (now Curve), a lesbian magazine, and in The Advocate's 1997 summer double issue on Generation Q. Moreover, she encourages athletes to come out. In an interview with Christina Allen, she said "I realize that athletes look at Martina Navratilova and realize that she has lost millions in endorsements because she is openly lesbian... I have been fortunate that discrimination has not held me back in my career. All I can say is that I think people will ultimately respect you most for being honest about who you are."

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...
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (5,895 m) - September 2006
Mount Elbrus, Russia (5,642 m) - August 2007
Aconcagua, Argentina (6,961 m)- January 2014
Mount Kosciuszko, Australia (2,228 m) - March 2015
Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia (4,884 m) - March 2015
Vinson Massif, Antarctica (4,892 m) - December 2015
Mount Everest, Nepal (8,849 m) - May 2016
Denali / McKinley, Alaska (6,190 m) - June 201
Note: a double decker bus measures in height... 4.4 metres!

During the Peruvian terrorist movement by the Shining Path, Silvia was born and raised in Lima, Peru. She was a victim of childhood sexual abuse so her mother encouraged her to leave Peru. Silvia came to the US on an IIE/Fulbright scholarship and attended Millersville University, Pennsylvania. In 2014, Silvia launched Courageous Girls, as a nonprofit, that helps survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking with opportunities to find their strength - projects in Nepal, India, the US and Peru.

In 2020, it was reported that pop star Selena Gomez would portray Silvia in a new film, based on Vasquez-Lavado's upcoming memoir In the Shadow of the Mountain. Hmmm.

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...
3 Golds - European Championship (1998, 1999 & 2010)
6 Silvers - 2004 Athens Olympics and World Championships (1993, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2010)
7 Bronzes World Championships (1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) and and European Championship (2006)

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, of the 10,500 athletes who participated only 10 athletes, including just one man, were willing to say publicly that they were G.A.Y! The out lesbians were: Judith Arndt (Germany, cycling), Imke Duplitzer (Germany, fencing), Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg (Norway, handball and a lesbian couple), Natasha Kai (U.S., soccer), Lauren Lappin (U.S., softball); Victoria "Vickan" Svensson (Sweden, soccer); Rennae Stubbs (Australia, tennis) and Linda Bresonik (Germany, soccer). Australian diver Matthew Mitcham was the only out male athlete.

As an out lesbian, Imke is known for her work speaking up for human rights in the sports world. She boycotted the opening ceremony as a protest against the Chinese actions in Tibet and Darfur and, was one of 40 athletes who signed an open letter to Chinese president Hu protesting human-rights violations in Tibet and Darfur.

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the Olympic road race. During a 2004 Olympic Games (Athens) road race where Judith won a silver medal, photographers famously caught Judith raising a one-fingered gesture as she crossed the finishing line. She was fined 200 Swiss francs ($AU224) by The International Cycling Union (UCI). She later explained the one-fingered gesture was not directed at Australian winner Sara Carrigan, but against the exclusion of her lesbian partner and fellow cyclist Petra Rossner from the German Olympic team.

With her partner at the time, fellow cyclist Petra Rossner they became Gay Games ambassadors in 2005. At the 2012 London Olympic Games Judith Arndt became the first out lesbian to win a medal (silver) at the London Games.

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2 Golds - Southeast Asian Games (2001 & 2005)
4 Silvers - Southeast Asian Games (1995, 1999 & 2001)
5 Bronze - Asian Games (1998 & 2002), Asian Championships (1999) and Southeast Asian Games (1995 & 1999)

Online, there are photos of Sujitra marrying her girlfriend Viraradis Tippadabhorn but no detail on this. I just included her as she is a rare OUT Asian lebsian athlete :)

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... shame, there is nothing much out there, on her.

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8 Golds - Olympic Games (2012 & 2016), World Championships (2016), European Games (2015), Commonwealth Games (2014), European Championships (2011) and EU Championships (2011 & 2013)
4 Silvers - World Championships (2008, 2010, 2012) and European Championship (2007)

Honours
2012 - the first female boxer to receive an award (the Joe Bromley Award for outstanding services to boxing) from the Boxing Writers' Club of Great Britain and the first woman ever to be invited to the club's awards ceremony
2012 - named the most influential LGBT person in Britain by The Independent
2013 - appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
2017 - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

In a 2016 GQ article Nicola had previously shared that she came out as bisexual at the age of 15. In 2020, Nicola shared a video to TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, which was sound tracked to Kill Whitey's track Gay and which she added a rainbow flag to the video, and captioned it... "I'm a lesbian." In 2020, Nicola became part of first ever all-female dance pairing in BBC's Strictly Come Dancing series.

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... a spinal stroke and became paralysed in her lower body. Showing great strength of character, after she recovered she played for the national women's wheelchair basketball team. In 2010 she switched to para rowing because she wanted to represent Israel at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. She finished in fifth place and competed as an openly lesbian athlete.

Medals
2 Golds - World Championships (2015) & World Rowing Cup (2015)
4 Silvers - Paralympic Games (2020), World Championships (2014, 2017 & 2018)
5 Bronze - Paralympic Games (2016), World Championships (2011, & 2019)and World Rowing Cup (2011 & 2016)

In 2019, she was chosen to light a ceremonial torch on Israel's Independence Day and the following year, at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony she was chosen to be one of Israel’s flag bearers. Though Moran has a wife ( Limor Samuel Goldberg) and a son and a daughter Israel only recognises same-sex marriages performed abroad (LGBTQ marriages within its borders is not legalised) and Israel's Supreme Court recently ruled it legal for same-sex couples to have children with the aid of a surrogate. LGBTQ citizens can serve in Israel's government and the military. NB: of the 195 countries in the world today, currently only in 32 countries (18%) is same-sex marriage legal.

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...
2 Gold - World Championships (2011 & 2021)
4 Silvers - Olympic Games (2014) and World Championships (2017 and 2x 2019)
3 Bronze - World Championships (2015, 2019 & 2021)

Ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, Daniela was one of 15 women ski jumpers who unsuccessfully sued the organisers of the 2010 Games in a bid for women to be allowed to compete as ski jumpers. 90 years after the men, The International Olympic Committee added women's jumping from the normal hill to the Sochi program in 2011.

Daniela married her lesbian partner in 2013 and become a rare Austrian athlete to come out openly as gay. In 2014, she was the first openly gay athlete to win a medal at the Sochi (Russia) Winter Olympics. Shortly before the Games officially opened Russian police detained gay rights activists who tried to protest on Moscow's Red Square and in St Petersburg against a law banning the spread of "gay propaganda" among minors.

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... In 2013, Alexandra became the first female international cricketer to publicly come out and the second international player to come out during their playing career after England's Steven Davies. In an .abc.net.au interview she said "As a gay woman in sport I felt the need to hide who I was for a very long time, because of the fear of experiencing homophobia." She is married to fellow professional cricketer Lynsey Askew.

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... the first US Olympians to come out, which she did casually in an interview with NBCOlympics.com in 2008 by mentioning that she was going through a breakup with her girlfriend. She also became the first athlete with Hawaiian heritage to win a gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games.

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... right femur (thigh bone). At age 7 months she underwent surgery to amputate her right foot and two months later received her first prosthetic leg (at 9 months of age).

In 2002, she made her winter debut at the Salt Lake City Paralympic Games as an alpine skier and her summer debut in 2004 Athens Paralympic as a cyclist. She won 8 Paralympic medals, including 2 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronze, and win another 22 world championships medals — including 10 golds — in cycling. In 2012, she became just the second American woman ever to win gold medals in both the summer (cycling, road time trial, London 2012) and winter (alpine skiing, slalom, Torino 2006) Paralympics.

Allison is out and was married in 2014 to Sara Jarrell. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics Opening Ceremony she was was the flagbearer for Team USA.

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... several teams including the Chicago Red Stars, Philadelphia Independence, and MagicJack in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), as well as in in France's Division 1 Féminine for Olympique Lyon.

... Megan publicly came out in the July 2012 edition of Out magazine, stating that she had been in a relationship with Australian soccer player Sarah Walsh for three years. She is an advocate for numerous organisations including LGBTQIA+ organizations such as the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Athlete Ally.

Since 2016 Megan has been involved in a women's team's equal pay complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In March 2019, she, along with 4 / 27 of her US Women's soccer teammates filed a lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation accusing it of gender discrimination, hoping to achieve equal pay. In May of the following year a judge dismissed key parts of the lawsuit including the complaint over receiving lower pay than the U.S. men's team but allowed other claims to move to trial.

Undeterred they fought appealed - in 2022, the US women’s national team reached an equal pay settlement with US Soccer for total of £17.7m ($24m) following another discrimination lawsuit. US Soccer also pledged equal pay for both the men’s and women’s teams across all international competitions.

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... She is also both the youngest Dutch Olympic gold medallist (aged 19) and the oldest speed skating gold medalist (aged 35) in the history of the Winter Games. She is also a seven-time world allround champion, a fifteen-time world single distance champion, and a five-time European allround champion.

Honours:
2006 - awarded as Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
2022 - appointed a Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau

In a 2009 Dutch interview, Irene came out as bisexual, and discussed being in a relationship with a woman. Apparently when she won her Sochi gold medal while celebrating at a Sochi nightclub with her Dutch fans, she bumped into Anti-gay President Putin who was in a celebratory after Russia's team figure skating gold and he congratulated Irene with... a surprising... "hug" (euchhhhhhhhhh!)

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... Martha was named co-captain of the Canadian Olympic swimming team.

After retiring, in a July 2020 interview with CBC Sports, McCabe came out as a lesbian, saying that she hoped her own visibility will encourage other sports stars to do the same. While competing in Canada's national team she thought she had quite a few LGBT+ teammates and believes that had she know more out sportswomen it could have helped her understand her identity earlier on.

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... In 2015, Bruni became the first Italian swimmer to win the FINA 10 km Marathon Swimming World Cup - she won if a further two times: 2016 and in 2019 (and won that year the bronze medal in the 10km and the silver medal in the 5km team at the World Aquatics Championships).

When Rachele received her silver medal in the 10km swim she, dedicated the medal to her family, coach and... girlfriend Diletta Faina she became the first Italian athlete at the 2016 games to come out as gay.

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... one of her coaches forwarded her an open invitation for athletes for the Brazilian team. Tempted by the possibility to compete in the Olympics (for Brazil) she moved to São Paulo to play rugby professionally.

As a member of Brazil women's national rugby sevens team, she won a bronze medal at the 2015 Pan American Games. She competed with the Brazil women's rugby sevens team in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, placing 9th and (COVID postponed) 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics placing 11th.

In 2021, Isadora became the first international Olympian to join Premier Rugby Sevens which is a new USA-based Rugby Sevens league which will consist of 120 players in a league of 10 teams.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, after the medal ceremony following the first women's rugby sevens final in Olympic history, Isadora's partner of two years, Marjorie Yuri Enya (a sport and event manager at Rio's Deodoro Stadium), walked onto the field and publicly asked Isadora to marry her! The proposal was widely reported in the media, with Isadora being the first athlete to accept a marriage proposal at that Olympics.

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... in Guadalajara, the team won three medals: 2 silvers and a bronze. She retired at the age of 21 - I was surprised... it is thought that most female gymnasts retire around their early 20s as their bodies cannot handle the stress of jumping around on a mat or take falls from working on the balance beam or the floor exercises.

Though Rose had been out to her teammates for several years, she came publicly out shortly after retirement in 2014. She has been very active in her support for the LGBT+ community and now dedicates her time to spreading the message of inclusion. She has worked with Toronto's The 519 Church Street Community Centre on the creation of Pride House Toronto, a resource house for LGBT athletes which was launched for the 2015 Pan American Games.

As a public speaker, Rosie has been invited to speak at several high-profile events both nationally and internationally, including at the International Olympic Committee’s 2016 Young Participant Session, in Ancient Olympia, Greece. She now runs the Canadian Olympic Committees Sport Inclusion program – #OneTeam, managing more than 50 Team Canada athletes who are ambassadors for creating more inclusive spaces in sport.

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... she made her senior national team debut, scoring the second goal in Russia's 2–0 UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying Group 5 win over Turkey. She has played 24 times for Russia, including at UEFA Women's Euro 2017. She moved to Spain in 2017 where she played for Valencia but now plays for RCD Espanyol . The Russian football team were banned from 2022 Women's European Championship as a result of the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Having come out in 2022 by publishing a TikTok video where she... kissed a girl, she is now openly lesbian and the first openly gay Russian national team athlete. In June 2022, Karpova is one of a small number of brave Russian sportspeople who have spoken out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian brought in a new law which can lead to up to 15 years in jail for spreading anything the authorities consider to be 'fake news' about the military.

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... achieve the qualifying time for Tokyo 2020, her world ranking helped her make a second Olympic appearance in the women’s 100m and 200m.

She is the first Indian to win a gold medal in 100m race in a global competition, the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. In 2018, Chand clinched silver in women's 100m at the Jakarta Asian Games which was India's first medal in this event since 1998. In 2019, she became the first Indian sprinter to win gold at the Universiade, clocking 11.32 seconds in the 100 m race.

Medals include:
1 Gold - Summer Universiade (2019)
2 Silvers - 3 Asian Games (2x 2018) & South Asian Games (2016)
6 Bronze - Asian Championships (2013, 2x 2017 & 2019), Asian Indoor Athletics Championships (2016) and South Asian Games (2016)

Hyperandrogenism controversy
While Dutee was preparing for the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the last minute the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) decided to drop her from the athletics contingent, (and also the 2014 Asian Games) citing that her perceived female hyperandrogenism made her ineligible to compete as a woman athlete. Hyperandrogenism is a medical condition characterised by high levels of androgens (which are a group of sex hormones with testosterone being the most common androgen). There was no suggestion by the AFI that Chand was involved in cheating or doping, but the decision was widely criticised by intersex advocates and not only humiliated Dutee broke her heart but led her open to persecution.

In 2015, Dutee appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and her suspension was lifted. Moreover, this changed The IAAF policy on hyperandrogenism, or high natural levels of testosterone in women. The ruling found that there was a lack of evidence provided that testosterone increased female athletic performance and notified the IAAF that it had two years to provide the evidence.

In 2019, Dutee became India's first ever openly queer athlete as she publicly stated that she was in a same-sex relationship. It was not a happy coming out - she came out as her elder sister went to press about her same-sex relationship. In an ESPN interview she revealed "A year before it became public, I had confided in my mother and elder sister about my love for a girl and my desire to marry her [in 2018, Indian Supreme Court had decriminalised gay sex]. When relations between me and my sister got strained, she threatened to tell the media [details] about my same-sex relationship and in her anger for me went through with it. News stories were run about me in the local press, slowly it became national news so I decided to confront the situation and speak up for myself."

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... the Phillip Island Trophy in Melbourne and The St. Petersburg Open in Russia.

Bravo Twice to her!

Coraggio 1: Daria is a rare OUT Russian athlete. During an interview in 2021 with Sofya Tartakova (a Russian television presenter), Daria made comments that were presumed to be discussing her bisexuality.

In 2022, Daria made headlines when she clarified these comments, during a YouTube video alongside Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko, and came out as lesbian, confirming that she was in a relationship with Russian-Estonian competitive pair skater Natalia Zabiiako (both had posted photos on their Instagram profiles of themselves together. She also revealed that she "found living in the closet impossible" and spoke out against the attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and restrictions of rights within Russia.

Daria and ATP world No 8 Andrey Rublev (who also featured in the video, received backlash for their comments in the video, including on Russia’s sports channel Match TV. One of the long-time presenters for the TV channel, Sofya Tartakova (who is also the agent for Kasatkina and Rublev) lashed out at one of her colleagues for criticising the stars but found herself suspended from her presenting role indefinitely as punishment.

Though homosexuality is not illegal in Russia the spreading of "gay propaganda" among minors is prohibited and homophobia is widespread. With great courage, Daria continues to talk openly about her sexual identity in an authoritarian country that's hostile towards LGBT+ people.

Coraggio 2: Daria is a rare Russian in the public eye who has spoken in the media against the Russian invasion / war on Ukraine. In that same video interview, Daria condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling for an end to Russian aggression and showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people. This has put her at risk as Russians are banned from using the word "war" to describe the invasion, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has coined it as a "special military operation". A FACT - Russia has not performed a "special military operation" in Ukraine - it has invaded / inflicted war on the Ukraine, which is a sovereign state. On July 16, 1990, Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council or Parliament) of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine. An overwhelming majority of its citizens supported independence in a referendum in December 1991 (92.3% voted in favour with a turnout of 84%). Since 1991, the Ukrain has been a sovereign state - a sovereign state has the legal authority and responsibility of an independent state to govern and regulate its own political affairs without foreign interference.

As a consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian players have been banned to compete in various International events including 2022 Wimbledon. Both countries have been allowed to compete on the tennis tour but not under their national flags.

During the video interview, Daria became tearful when asked if she was "afraid" she may not be able to return home to Russia. She replied... "Yes, I have thought about that." Watch an excerpt of the video interview. A huge hug to Daria.

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... the 2018 African Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup and the 2022 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Cairo. She won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham - South Africa's first bronze on the uneven bars in Commonwealth Games history and only the second female SA gymnast to medal at the Commonwealth Games after Jennifer Khwela who won silver at the 2010 Delhi Games.

Though in 2018 she was unfit to compete at the Gold Coast commonwealth Games after she was declared medically unfit in 2019, Caitlin became the first South African to win a gold medal at an international gymnastics competition when she competed at the Szombathely Challenge Cup in Hungary.

Caitlin is openly queer, and is the first female artistic gymnast to compete at the Olympics while being publicly out.

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