© 2025 WGCU News
PBS and NPR for Southwest Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A Record Number Of Out LGBTQ Athletes Will Compete In The Tokyo Paralympics

A general view of action during a New Zealand Wheelchair rugby practice session ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at Yoyogi Sports Arena on August 22, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
Alex Pantling
/
Getty Images
A general view of action during a New Zealand Wheelchair rugby practice session ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at Yoyogi Sports Arena on August 22, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

When the Tokyo Paralympic Games get underway on Tuesday, it will have a record number of out LGBTQ athletes.

At least 28 publicly out Paralympians will compete in the summer games in Tokyo, more than double the number that took part in the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, according to Outsports.

The athletes on the list come from at least eight countries and are mostly women. The only man on the list oss Lee Pearson, an equestrian from Great Britain.

There are also at least three nonbinary or neutral athletes participating in the games, according to the site.

The Paralympic Games are set to begin just weeks after the Tokyo Summer Olympics wrapped up.

That competition broke another record with at least 185 LGBTQ athletes in contention, Outsports said.


This story first appeared in the Morning Edition liveblog.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Joe Hernandez
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Trusted by over 30,000 local subscribers

Local News, Right Sized for Your Morning

Quick briefs when you are busy, deeper explainers when it matters, delivered early morning and curated by WGCU editors.

  • Environment
  • Local politics
  • Health
  • And more

Free and local. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

More from WGCU
  • Halloween is a holiday that brings to mind creatures of the night such as bats and many spiders. These nocturnal creatures are ones we have some unease about because we rarely see them, encounter them by surprise in the dark, and often have little understanding of their role in nature. We often misinterpret their behavior and they sometimes leave us with a sense of fear of what they might do to us. Yes, tropical American vampire bats drink blood and in doing so can transmit disease to its victims. North American and most other bats are insect eaters that provide an important service in consuming mosquitos that can transmit diseases to the animals they bite. Most bats also consume large numbers of moths and other insects that feed on plants that our livestock or we depend on.
  • In Florida, roughly 300,000 people live with vision impairment. Those dealing with vision impairment are forced to live with unfair stigmas, which include being described as helpless or incompetent.
  • Showers and thunderstorms during the first half of the workweek could put down around an inch of precipitation, with heavier accumulations expected in the Florida Panhandle.