LGBTQ Athletes Mourn Lost Chances Despite Diverse Tokyo Olympics
- Tokyo 2020 saw record numbers of openly LGBTQ competitors
- Careers still derailed by pressure to conform to gender roles
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As LGBTQ athletes make a bigger splash at the Olympics than ever before, queer sports people say they continue to lose opportunities because of a rigid male-female divide in many activities.
The pressure to fall in line with a deeply gendered culture alienates some LGBTQ athletes, who tend to drop out, according to Fumino Sugiyama, a transgender activist who was a member of Japan’s national women’s fencing team before transitioning to become a man.