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And in case you missed it, I interviewed Jonathan Van Ness about the figure skating competition for Bustle. Paid subscribers can read bonus content from our interview, as well. I also spoke with Olympic ice dancer Tim Koleto ahead of the Games, and shared a Winter Olympics reading list for politically-inclined fans.
Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified U.S. curler Korey Dropkin as gay. I regret the error, and the post has been updated on the web.
We are five (?) days into the two-week-long Winter Olympic Games and I thought this was a good time to take a break and recap how the queers are doing in Milano Cortina (I’ve finally stopped typing Milano Cortada everytime I write the name of these games, please clap). Let’s jump right in. I’m sure I’ve missed some stories, so feel free to let me know what you’ve got your eye on!
Pansexual figure skater Amber Glenn has her first Olympic gold medal after the U.S. won the team event.
Glenn says that she has received threats for speaking out in support of the LGBTQ+ community. “I couldn't believe the outlandish backlash I received for just supporting people,” Glenn wrote on her Instagram story. “Of course, I have people supporting me, and I'm not online right now because of it, but I'm gonna keep speaking my truth. I'm gonna keep representing what I believe in and what I think all Americans believe in, which is freedom and being able to love and do what you want.”
Lindsay Vonn’s ACL tear and crash soaked up most of the headlines in the women’s downhill race, but bisexual American skier Breezy Johnson had a triumphant run, taking home the gold medal (a medal that broke within 15 minutes, which has been an ongoing issue at these Games).
Sweden’s Elis Lundholm, the first trans skier in the Winter Olympics, competed yesterday. The NBC broadcast misgendered him (he competes in the women’s division) and then they “fixed” it by removing that broadcast from the replay, essentially erasing his appearance altogether. NBC told Karleigh Webb at Outsports that it was “an international feed with non-NBCUniversal commentators.” It’s wild to me that this happened considering how much press Lundholm received prior to the Games, and the research and broadcasting team literally have one job—to catch things like this.
If you have not been following the controversy around the French ice dancing pair of Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry, welcome and buckle up. The skaters were one of three pairs featured in Netflix’s “Glitter and Gold” documentary, following their relatively new skating partnership and the events that led up to them pairing up (Diana Moskovitz has written a great piece on the situation over at Defector). Cizeron, who is openly gay, has been accused by his former partner, bisexual ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis, of “sexual maltreatment” and controlling behavior. Beaudry’s former partner was banned from the sport following a sexual abuse investigation. Cizeron and Beaudry are currently in first place after the rhythm dance portion of the ice dancing competition.
Papadakis published a memoir about her own experience and systemic abuse in figure skating just before the Games began. She was supposed to be providing commentary for NBC’s Olympics coverage, but after her book came out she was removed from the broadcast due to “conflict of interest.” She has posted a video on “the cost of speaking out,” which is well worth your time. Since ending her skating partnership with Cizeron, Papadakis has been at the forefront of publicizing and advocating for same-sex pairings in ice dance.
“I had to end my competitive career because I could no longer tolerate abuse. And now, as a result of speaking up about it I’ve lost my job,” Papadakis said on Instagram. “I don’t single myself out as a victim. I use my experience to highlight a reality: as long as survivors are punished for speaking out, the sport cannot truly change or become safer. As the Winter Olympics unfold, I encourage you to engage critically with the spectacle. Spectators have power, and the way we choose to watch, support, question, or look away helps shape the culture of the sport.”
Even more upsetting is the way Papadakis’s story has been sidelined as Cizeron (literally) vogues his way through the competition, including by queer media. Over at Outsports, everyone’s favorite log cabin Republican, Cyd Ziegler, wrote a story about how he was rooting for Cizeron without mentioning the controversy surrounding his participation in the Games at all. Even after many people pointed it out to him, his story has not been updated and he has not addressed the comments.
This is why uncritical “rooting for everybody gay” coverage doesn’t work. Cis gay men are still capable of perpetuating misogyny and sexist abuse. It also erases that Papadakis is a queer athlete as well, one who has been silenced while her (alleged) abuser continues competing on the world’s largest stage.
Canadian women’s hockey team captain Marie-Philip Poulin left the game against Czechia after sustaining an injury following an illegal hit. She missed Canada’s first game against Team USA, which ended up being a blowout—the U.S. won 5-0, which was a shocking margin for the biggest rivalry in winter sports.
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud defeated Eileen Gu, her biggest rival in women’s slopestyle skiing, to take home the gold. Her girlfriend, elite mountain bike athlete Vali Höll, posted a celebratory photo of the pair kissing, as Gremaud holds her gold medal.
Openly gay figure skater Kevin Aymoz, who skates his short program to “Judas” by Lady Gaga, has qualified to skate in the free skate after finishing 7th in the short program. After winning the men’s competition in November at the ISU Grand Prix Skate America competition in Lake Placid, Aymoz said that he skates for the people he loves—including his boyfriend.
And in not explicitly gay news, but spiritually gay news, the biathlon is apparently the messiest sport at the Winter Olympics. It’s already a wild sport because, unlike, say, the summer triathlon, where athletes ride a bike and swim and run, this sport hands athletes a gun after they’ve cross-country skied. Sure!
In the men’s 20km biathlon yesterday, Norwegian Sturla Holm Lægrid won the bronze medal and then went on TV to admit to cheating on his girlfriend and hoping she would take him back. Not only did he steal the spotlight from his teammate, the gold medalist Johan-Olaf Botn, he made a non-consensual public declaration and put his ex-girlfriend in a very uncomfortable position. She told the Norwegian media that she was uninterested in a reconciliation: “I did not choose to be put in this position, and it hurts to have to be in it.”
Then today, in the women’s 15km biathlon, the French biathlete who was found guilty of stealing her teammate’s credit card (Julia Simon) and the teammate whose credit card was stolen (Justine Braisaz-Bouchet) competed against each other. The credit card thief won gold, while the theft victim placed 80th.
My theory is that because the sport has “bi” in it, it has inherited bisexual chaos energy. Just my non-scientific opinion. And, you know, at least the messiest athletes at the Games also have guns.
