At first of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, US determine skater Amber Glenn spoke at a press convention about utilizing her platform as an Olympian to help LGBTQ+ rights. “It isn’t the primary time we’ve needed to come collectively as a group,” she mentioned. “I hope that I can use my platform and my voice all through these Video games to attempt to encourage individuals to remain robust.”
Just a few days later, she posted an Instagram story saying she had acquired “a scary quantity of hate/threats” following the feedback on social media. “I’ve by no means had so many individuals want me hurt earlier than, only for being me and talking out about being respectable,” she told NPR.
Glenn went on to win gold as a part of the US determine skating staff—and she or he nonetheless has a number of particular person occasions upcoming—however the response to her feedback demonstrates an actual friction on the 2026 Video games in terms of celebrating queer athletes whereas additionally exposing them to ridicule.
Almost 50 out LGBTQ+ athletes are competing on the Winter Video games, according to OutSports. That determine could appear small in comparison with the 2,900 or so competitors, however in comparison with years previous when each out athlete made headlines, it’s enormous.
The rising variety of out queer athletes additionally comes at a time when the flexibility of trans individuals to take part in sports activities stays hotly contested. A yr in the past, US president Donald Trump signed an government order banning trans athletes from girls’s sports activities. Following that order, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee banned trans girls from competing in girls’s sports activities. USA Hockey not too long ago reversed its 2019 policy that allowed trans athletes to play, even in so-called “beer league” video games.
“Defending girls’s classes is likely one of the key reforms that we’ll pursue,” Mark Adams, a spokesperson for Worldwide Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry, informed a press convention on February 7.
On Tuesday, Swedish skier Elis Lundholm became the first openly trans athlete to compete within the Winter Video games. Lundholm, who competes within the girls’s class, was assigned feminine at start and identifies as male. Lundholm informed reporters he hasn’t considered his historic second a lot and is as an alternative centered on his sport. UK skier Tess Johnson told the Associated Press that it’s “superior” Lundholm was competing as the primary trans athlete on the Winter Video games. “I imply, we’re right here to ski, we’re right here to have enjoyable, and that is precisely what we do,” she added.
This elevated curiosity in LGBTQ+ athletes comes as Heated Rivalry, the wildly in style Canadian present about two closeted hockey gamers, is bringing troves of new fans to the game. HBO Max launched the present in Italy this month.
On the bottom in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, queer athletes and followers are searching for the identical acceptance. In Milan, they’ll discover that at Pride House, a gathering and dialogue house open to all the metropolis on the MEET Digital Tradition Middle. First organized on the 2010 Video games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Satisfaction Home is meant to be a protected house for queer individuals coming from all around the world to look at the Video games. Every day the middle presents a spot to look at competitions and take part in conferences, performances, and social occasions.
“Satisfaction Home was born as a protected place particularly for athletes who come from international locations the place it isn’t straightforward to be out,” says Alice Redaelli, president of CIG Arcigay Milano, which helped arrange Satisfaction Home with a number of different queer organizations. “Sports activities is likely one of the worlds wherein we nonetheless wrestle to emerge as LGBTQIA+ individuals, the place ideas reminiscent of gender and machismo dominate.”
Having extra out athletes might assist pave the way in which for extra acceptance of queer opponents in future Video games the place native legal guidelines assure these freedoms. “In Sochi in 2014, for instance, it was not potential to prepare the Satisfaction Home due to Russia’s repressive insurance policies,” Redaelli says.
