Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (February 12, 2010)

THIS JUST IN: MEET YOUR 2010 LESBIAN OLYMPIANS
The 2010 Winter Olympics kick off today, and after sifting through 2,500 women (and dozens of rumors) we have confirmed four openly gay athletes who will be competing in Vancouver.

Ireen Wüst, Netherlands — Speed Skating

Ireen Wüst is a speed skater from Goirle, Netherlands. She won the gold medal in the 3000m at the 2006 Olympics in Turin at the age of 19 (making her the youngest Dutch world champion ever). In Vancouver she will be competing in the the 1000m (Feb 18), the 1500m (Feb 21) and the 3000m (Feb 14). Wüst came out in November 2009, telling TVM Helden magazine that she has a girlfriend and is very happy.

Vibeke Skofterud, Norway — Cross-country Skiing

Vibeke Skofterud is a cross-country skier from Norway. Her best showing in previous Olympics came in Salt Lake City in 2002 with an eighth place win in the 30km. In 2008, Skofterud came out in the Norwegian magazine See and Hear, telling them that she'd known she was gay for a while: "I have gone many rounds with myself, and it has taken a lot of time to figure out. I was not always honest with my own feelings." She went on to say that she would live in a "dump site" as long as she could live with her girlfriend.

Sarah Vaillancourt, Canada — Hockey

Sarah Vaillancourt is a forward on the Canadian women's hockey team. She has been out and proud since her freshman year at Harvard, where she told local newspapers that if her coaches and teammates weren't comfortable with her sexuality, there was no point in her sticking around. Turns out they were comfortable with sexuality and with her ability put the puck in the net. (Sometimes it helps.) Team Canada is the top contender for the gold in Vancouver this winter.

Erika Holst, Sweden — Hockey

Erika Holst has been playing hockey with the Swedish women's national team since 2002, where they took home a bronze medal in Salt Lake City. In 2006, her team captured silver in Turin. Holst came out in 2006 along with her teammate Ylva Lindberg (who won't be competing in the 2010 Games). Holst is a high school hockey coach when she's not medaling at the Olympics.

WHERE ARE THE OTHER QUEER CONTENDERS?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you fire a t-shirt cannon into the stands at a women's professional sporting event, you are going to hit a lesbian. Yet despite the long, complicated, sometimes stereotypical relationship gay women have with athletics, there are still very few openly gay high-profile athletes. The reasons athletes choose to not come out publicly are as varied as the sports in which they participate — and that's especially true at the Olympics.

Pat Griffin, former director of It Takes a Team and author of Strong Women, Deep Closets, told me, "I think we need to remember that to reach the Olympic level, athletes need to be incredibly focused on their competition. They are competing against the best in the world and I think most LGBT athletes may see coming out publicly as a distraction from their athletic goals."

It's also important to note that Olympic athletes only enter our collective consciousness every four years, so their window of marketability is small.

"Different economic situations also affect the decision to be out," Griffin went on to say. "If being out is going to put a scholarship at risk or jeopardize your ability to earn a living, I can't fault an athlete for deciding not to be publicly out, even if I'd love to see more openly LGBT athletes and coaches."

Ireen Wüst warms up for practice in Vancouver

The decision to come out can be even more complicated if an athlete is participating in a team sport. In 2007, Sarah Vaillancourt told The Seattle Times that she didn't have any problems being out when she played hockey at Harvard, but that she is more cautious discussing it publicly while doing press for the Canadian national team.

"They don't want me to talk about it so much," she said, "because if one person comes out, everyone's [going to be labeled] a lesbian. My whole team is not lesbian."

The seemingly logical follow-up question is: So what if everyone on the team was labeled a lesbian?

The unfortunate answer is that women's athletic organizers have been stigmatizing the sports dyke persona for so long, that having an entire team labeled as "lesbian" might affect the quality of play from straight athletes. Since Babe Didrickson's phenomenal athletic career (and relationship with Betty Dodd in the 1930s), the men (and now women) who control professional sports have pushed the idea that being an open lesbian will prevent athletes from connecting with sponsors and fans.

We also have to realize that because Olympians only garner international attention twice a decade, there are probably gay competitors who haven't done much press.

"I do think there are athletes who are out to friends, family, teammates and it is just no big deal to them," Pat Griffin told me. "They don't come out publicly. Kind of like the recent story on the US Women's Soccer coach — she was out, just not in the media."

But the tide is changing. In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, there were a record 13 openly gay athletes. The Winter Olympics are about a third of the size of the Summer Games, so four out athletes is about the same number, percentage-wise.

Sarah Vaillancourt celebrates a goal against the U.S. in an exhibition game in Ottawa in January

This year, an organization called Gay Whistler has taken a big step in increasing gay visibility at the Olympics. They have created the first ever Pride House, a hospitality suite similar to the ones set up by different countries during the Olympics. Instead of reaching out to a particular nation, though, Pride House is open to gay and lesbian athletes, coaches, family, friends and allies.

Gay Whistler's press release says:

Pride House will be a hip lounge with a cocktail bar with TV monitors to watch the Olympics, hang out, trade pins, a media area to do interviews, and a venue to just have fun. Pride House will be designed with the core values of celebrating authenticity, diversity and inclusiveness.

While some people have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of Pride House (for example, would a closeted athlete really go anywhere near it?), others have commented that, even symbolically, it's an important addition to the Games.

"I wish that the Pride House could really become known as the fun place to go for all athletes," Griffin said. "That would be great. If we saw lots of athletes, gay and straight, enjoying the Pride House together, that would be a great message to the world."

Thanks to Natazzz and Maxime from Eurout; Riese and Sarah from Autostraddle; LGBT athlete expert Pat Griffin; AfterEllen.com reader Meloes; and my own personal Dutch translator Nathalie for helping me track down and confirm these openly gay athletes. If we missed anyone, let us know! Stay tuned this week for plenty of Olympics coverage at AfterEllen.com

— by Heather Hogan