First transgender athlete to medal at Olympics wins gold.
First transgender athlete to medal at Olympics wins gold
The first transgender athlete won Olympic gold on Thursday, marking a historic achievement, but one that's also bittersweet.
Quinn, along with the Canadian soccer team, played a long match against Sweden, with a tied result moving into a tense penalty shootout, which Canada won. More openly trans and non-binary athletes have competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games than ever before as intense debates over trans people in athletics have frustratingly swept through schools and statehouses in the U.S.
Quinn's the first openly trans athlete to participate in the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee changed its rules in 2004 to allow transgender athletes to compete in the Games. But they were followed by others competing in weightlifting and BMX racing later on in the Games.
Quinn's one of at least 181 openly queer athletes at the Tokyo Games, more than three times the number who participated in the Rio Games, according to Outsports.
Although Quinn's said they're proud to see their name on the soccer roster, they're also sad past Olympians like them couldn't be open about their identities, Quinn revealed on Instagram a day before the Tokyo Olympics began. "I feel proud seeing 'Quinn' up on the lineup and on my accreditation. I feel sad knowing there were Olympians before me unable to live their truth because of the world," they wrote.
Quinn competed in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, where they and their team won a bronze medal, but they weren't out yet.
In a September 2020 Instagram post, Quinn told the world they were trans. While they've been out with their loved ones for years, part of Quinn's motivation to come out online is to support queer people who may not see people like themselves on social media.
"Instagram is a weird space. I wanted to encapsulate the feelings I had towards my trans identity in one post but that’s really not why anyone is on here, including myself," Quinn wrote. "So instead I want to be visible to queer folks who don’t see people like them on their feed. I know it saved my life years ago."
Quinn's accomplishment comes as trans and nonbinary athletes, like Olympic weightlifter Laurel Hubbard and Olympic skateboarder Alana Smith, respectively, gain more mainstream recognition because of their presence in the Games.
Despite gains for trans athletes on the Olympic stage, conservatives in the U.S. continue to pass bills to stop trans teens from playing on sports teams that align with their gender.
"When trans kids have access to gender-affirming spaces at school, like a locker room, a restroom, a sports team, they are 25 percent less likely to commit suicide," Annie Lieberman, director of policy programs for Athlete Ally, an LGBTQ athletic advocacy nonprofit, told ABC News.
The hurdles transgender athletes face to play on the teams that make them feel the safest makes Quinn's gold medal in the Olympics all the more impactful.
Funny, i still wait for a trans man to win something competing against their fellow biological males.
ReplyDeleteIf you were open to reading vs just blindly following your own opinion you know it happens.
DeleteGive an example of this at a state or national level
DeleteThis article is terribly written. I had to do my own research to figure out what’s going on. It’s a biological female that use to go by the name Rebecca Quinn, which now goes by Quinn and they/them identities as non-binary. They won the gold in woman’s soccer in the gender they were born, there is no controversy here. Mashable is just making click bait articles.
ReplyDeleteInclusion is great. Congratulations to the athlete.
ReplyDeleteBut as a scientist, it seems unfair, performances are also improved by testosterone levels!
Unless we check the testosterone levels and it falls in the same range as a female.
Let’s not forget this is the reason injectable performance boosters are banned in these sports... it’s a confusing slop and can be unfair to the competing athelete in the category.
trans women and women with differences of sexual development do have their testosterone levels checked, same as everyone else, and aren't allowed to compete if they're not within range.
DeleteIf that’s the case then it’s good to know
DeleteTo clarify on this response, every Olympic athlete is tested by USADA. Trans women have to meet a no more than 10ng/L testosterone level for at least a year to compete with female born athletes. However there are no guidelines for trans men to compete with born male athletes besides following the typical USADA guidelines.
DeleteSecondly, this particular trans/non-binary athlete was a born female competing against other born females. Making this particular reply kind of pointless.
Deletethe bigger question is did they enter puberty before they began the transition? If so, they had the benefit of those hormones during the biggest growth point in their lives, so a trans woman that was male thru puberty still developed as a male, making the current testerone level irrelevant.
Deleteif it were the case that trans women who transition after puberty continue to have an advantage then Laurel Hubbard would have walked away with the gold in her weight lifting category in Tokyo, instead she was the only athlete in her category not advance to the Clean & Jerk portion.
DeleteYea...I haven't caught much of the Olympics this go round but I did catch a lot of the women's weight lifting while at a restaurant and that Chinese woman is a beast. Good luck to literally everyone including trans women lol.
DeleteOh man after skimming thru the article I can’t tell which gender they were competing as. Is being confused and unidentifiable as an individual and a gender part of the deal for everyone going forward ?
ReplyDeletedoes it matter?
Deleteyes it does, genetically
DeleteThis is a born female, now non-binary, athlete competing against born females.
DeleteMashable did this on purpose. When talking about a non-binary person it is not typical to just notate "transgender" and not non-binary even though it is under that umbrella.
Deletegood job ...real women vs real Man, Developt country not allow having more medals
ReplyDeleteQuinn is genetically female, though identifies as non-binary, and plays for the women's team. Where's the advantage?
Deletepeople just like to be outraged, they usually have difficulty with reading comprehension so they don't even know what is going on lmao
Deleteyou'd think people would have better things to be outraged at!
ReplyDeleteIs her sexuality is important in this case?
ReplyDeleteTo clarify for you, this is not a sexuality thing. This is a gender thing. And this particular non-binary athlete prefers "they/them" over the "her" pronoun.
DeleteNot fair
ReplyDeleteDeep states wants to close church, let transgenders into spa and olympic, legalize drugs. Whats next?
ReplyDeleteShould we close the borders before the games end than
ReplyDeleteWhich discipline? Shortest d*ck?
ReplyDeleteThese olympics are epic dumpster fire
ReplyDeletehttps://media1.tenor.co/images/2d088acda1f24217014ffef0f080312e/tenor.gif?itemid=17061296&fbclid=IwAR1hbWQ7PO0McSoc9tKXrZf6CmA-7uEUOlKgUJlS565OPYwgEjW9w2tFiyg
We don’t see too many transgender athletes going the other way and competing in the men’s event. At this point we should just toss the whole male/female category. You go to the Olympic Game and compete against everyone, no matter what you identify as.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of non-binary specific transgender athletes I agree. This is a total non issue.
DeleteIn the case of trans a woman/man athlete I agree with the current guidelines as well. I feel those rules are more than fair.
Wow, so they realize now men will always be superior?
ReplyDeleteI think I am God. Prove me Wrong.
ReplyDeleteNonesense
ReplyDeleteFor the dummies in the back. This is a born female, now trans/non-binary, athlete that was competing with female athletes.
ReplyDeleteshout this louder!!
DeleteI'm afraid I can't encourage people to read any article that they instantly get enraged about.
Deleteeven when they read the article they still misunderstand/deliberately misinterpret it
DeleteYea, I can't really tell if Mashable is tugging at the dumb strings or not?
DeleteProbably would be better to have a transgender category. Men and women are different, in terms of physical performance.
ReplyDeleteTransgender or LGBTQ ? Not the same thing.
ReplyDeletewhat is a queer?
Deletemental illness
Deletesorry to hear you’re not well.
Deleteit’s literally the ‘ T’…
DeleteA guy in a girls team? He didn’t have a place in men’s team? Transgender or not he has the men potential muscle mass. This is cheating!
ReplyDeleteThey r all males who become females it's unfair
ReplyDeleteSo, a biological born man helped the women team to win. ¡Great!
ReplyDeleteActually they are a biological woman that identifies as non binary competing in woman’s scooter. The story makes it out to be something that it’s not.
DeleteOdd how the same people who dismiss Covid-19 despite its 1.7% case fatality rate are also the same people taking issue with transgender inclusion despite transgenders making up only 0.7% of the population.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason why trans men (female to male) don't play with biological men, bc they're not good enough. Being born a man gives you an advantage. Men are born with broader shoulders and women were born with wider hips for birthing children. Women have worked hard to get where they're at only to be defeated by a biological man.
ReplyDeleteWonderful....now how about Quinn go play against his biological equals on the mens teams? Back when I was growing up, beating girls, if you were a boy , was the mark of a sissy. IMHO it still is.
ReplyDeleteNo issue as long as they compete against their biological gender.
ReplyDelete