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Lesbian/Bi Women Medal at the 2008 Olympics

Of the 13 out lesbian and bisexual women competing at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, six ended up taking home gold, silver, or bronze medals.

(The Games’ sole openly gay male athlete, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, took home the gold in the men’s 10m platform.)

To help you get familiar with these new out Olympic champions, we’ve created an overview of their performance at the Games – including Katja Nyberg‘s four goals for Norway in the women’s handball final against Russia, Natasha Kai‘s game-winning goal for the U.S. in the women’s soccer quarter-finals, and the stunning upset that earned Vicky Galindo and Lauren Lappin a silver medal in women’s softball.

We’ve divided the medalists by sport – click on one of the sections below to get started! Handball 28-year-old openly gay captain Gro Hammerseng led Norway’s championship handball team to a 34-27 victory against Russia in the Olympic finals this weekend, securing the team’s first Olympic gold medal. The team, which also includes openly gay left back Katja Nyberg, advanced to the finals after narrowly beating South Korea in the semifinals, where center-back Hammerseng scored the winning goal in the final second.

Both women scored in the game against Russia, with Nyberg the third-highest scorer for the team, with four goals. “I think I am the happiest person on earth right now,” Nyberg told reporters after the match. “I think our speed was the ticket to the gold medal today.”

NEXT PAGE: Hammerseng and Nyberg celebrate their win.

The team’s celebration of their history-making win happened to coincide with Nyberg’s 29th birthday.

“I don’t care about my birthday right now, but it was nice of the other girls to give me this gold as birthday present.” The two officially came out as a couple in 2005, and have been casually public about their relationship ever since. After Norway won the European Handball Championship in 2006, Hammerseng drew an imaginary heart in the air directed towards Nyberg (who was sitting in the stands), and Nyberg reciprocated. In 2007, Hammerseng told a Norwegian newspaper, “If girls can see me and Katja and know that it is possible to be a known athlete and still live openly [gay], that is really good.”

For more info, visit our Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg forum thread. Soccer (Football) Beating Brazil in the women’s soccer finals by one goal in overtime, the U.S. took home the gold in women’s soccer for only the third time in the team’s history.

Among the team’s players is 25-year-old Natasha Kai, an aggressive forward who scored an overtime goal against Canada in the quarter-finals that earned the U.S. a spot in the finals. In the finals against Brazil, the score was tied 0-0 at the end of regulation play, and American player Carli Lloyd scored in overtime to earn U.S. the gold. NEXT PAGE: Kai celebrates her gold medal win.

An exuberant Kai took off her shirt in celebration of the gold medal win, perhaps in a nod to Brandi Chastain’s famous (and controversial) celebration of the U.S. win over China in the 1999 World Cup.

Kai, the first Hawaiian ever to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team, was branded as the team’s rebel in a Nike commercial earlier this year, both because of her somewhat erratic performance, and her 19 tattoos (which she says are more cultural than rebellious).

Kai came out publicly just before the start of the Olympics, when she revealed in an interview with NBCOlympics.com that she had “a hard time” when she initially joined in January. “I had missed the first camp in early-January because I had bronchitis, and I was going through a nasty break-up with my girlfriend,” she explained. The coach told her she was close to getting kicked off the team if her performance didn’t improve.

Kai got the message, and stepped up her game. At the Olympics, Kai started one game, and played in all six as a substitute. She played 199 minutes total, and scored one goal, with eight shots, including four on goal.

Discuss Natasha Kai in this forum thread.

NEXT PAGE: Germany’s Linda Bresonik earns a bronze medal.

The bronze medal in soccer went to Germany, who beat Japan 2-0 for third place. Among the bronze medalists is 24-year-old German midfielder Linda Bresonik, who was outed last year by German tabloids. Bresonik played well early on in the Olympics, but injured her ankle in a match against Sweden during the quarterfinals. After being taken off the field in stretcher, Bresonik learned she’d torn a ligament in her left ankle. She was forced to sit out the rest of the Games, and cheer her teammates on from the sidelines.

But she happily joined in the bronze medal ceremony with her teammates. Softball For the first time since 2000, the U.S. softball team lost the gold at the Olympic games, when they were beaten by Japan 3-1 in the finals last week.

The silver medalists include out lesbian catcher and infielder Lauren Lappin and openly bisexual infielder Vicky Galindo, both of whom came out in an interview with The Advocate earlier this month. Lappin credits Galindo – who says she has been in serious relationships with both men and women – for inspiring her to come out. “[Galindo] seemed very comfortable with her sexuality,” Lappin told The Advocate, “which really inspired me to be less guarded and to share with my teammates things that I wouldn’t hesitate to share if I was straight.”

In response to the news, U.S. shortstop Natasha Watley told The O.C. Register, “This team is very accepting. We don’t care if you’re purple, green, from another planet. We just don’t care. It’s who you are. It’s no big deal.” She joked, “if Lauren went into a hitting slump, then we’d have a problem.”

Lappin did not score in the final game (Crystal Bustos scored the only run for the U.S., with a home run in the fourth inning). Although the U.S. team made a good showing in the final, they were undone by outstanding pitching from Japan’s Yukiko Ueno, and excellent fielding by the Japanese team all around (twice, the American team loaded the bases but failed to score). Pinch hitter Vicky Galindo led off with a single in the final inning, but never made it past first base.

The stunned Americans were devastated at the loss, but rallied for the silver medal ceremony. Softball was recently eliminated from future Olympics, in part because it is widely believed that the U.S. has come to dominate the sport too much. The U.S.’s unexpected loss to Japan may ultimately help get the sport reinstated.

“If this can be an aid to get us back in the Games, then so be it,” U.S. coach Mike Candrea told the Associated Press. “I think this game is very good right now.”

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