2012 Olympics: Medals, Results For Gay And Lesbian Athletes

Ten publicly out gay and lesbian Olympians are taking home medals from these Olympic Games in London, most of them gold.

If Team Gay was a country, it would have finished 31st overall with seven medals, tied with Mexico, Ethiopia and Georgia. They would have beaten the medal count of such countries as Jamaica, Ireland, Argentina and India. They would have finished 21st overall for most golds (four), tied with Iran, Jamaica, Czech Republic and Korea.

Matthew Mitcham will not have the chance to defend his diving gold medal in the 10-meter platform final as he failed to qualify for the finals Saturday night. His semifinal score of 482.40 was more than 13 points behind the final qualifier, Canada’s Riley McCormick. American David Boudia and Great Britain’s Tom Daley both qualified.

The biggest reason for the out gay Olympian’s low score was his final dive. Four years ago, the dive was the highest-scoring in Olympic history with a score of 112.10 (watch the video below). In Saturday’s semifinal, he earned a dismal 70.20.

Check out our stream of every result of events featuring gay and lesbian Olympians in London.

Team LGBT: 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze (7 of the 23 have won a medal)

The dressage freestyle is always the climax of equestrian sport at the Olympics. Thursday morning, for the occasion, London cleared away her rain clouds and put on a sunny blue sky. The stands were packed to see 18 horses and riders duke it out for technical and artistic points from the judges.

Among them were the two openly gay riders, Carl Hester of Great Britain and Edward Gal of the Netherlands. Both had bigger goals than just a win. Gal was riding a talented young horse, Undercover, who needs to be brought along with care.

Hester had an even bigger weight on his shoulders. He was riding his Uthopia, but he also co-owns and trains Valegro, the horse that everybody said was the one to beat Thursday. At other big shows, the bay gelding had already gotten huge scores of over 80. Riding Valegro was his student and protege, 27-year-old Charlotte Dujardin.

Some years ago, Hester had spotted Valegro on a trip to the Netherlands. The young prospect had been bred at a small, but distinguished Dutch family-owned stud. Instead of keeping Valegro for his own career, Hester merely took in a partner on the horse’s ownership to lower his costs and turned the green horse over to Dujardin. She had come to work for him as a groom, and he had spotted her riding abilities. It made sense to put the two prospects together.

But Hester now had financial concerns. Dressage News described them: “He’s a seriously nice guy, articulate and humorous ... he didn’t come from a horse family and definitely not one with money. As so many horse lovers understand, he frets over how to pay his mortgage or whether he can come up with enough cash to keep a horse he’s attached to.”

Years ago, scores over 80 were unheard of. But in the last few years, some of the hot new horses have delivered such electrifying performances that judges relented a bit. A few rides have broken that 80 barrier, notably a 92.30 by the great showstopper Moorlands Totilas.

Hester was sure that Valegro could do better.

Valegro and Charlotte Dujardin were the last to ride Thursday -- and they were the showstoppers. The big horse is powerful and majestic, yet he moves with a springy and floating ease. His music (custom-written for him) was designed to tweak British pride. The six-minute soundtrack blended patriotic marches with James Bond movie themes and even chimes from Big Ben, all digitized so the beat and tempo matched the horse’s strides.

When Valegro finally halted, the hometown element in the stadium went wild. The judges handed up a 90.089 that was worth the gold.

Silver went to Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands on Parzival -- 88.196. The bronze went to Laura Bechtolsheimer, also of Great Britain, riding Mistral Hojris for 84.339.

The two gay guys also got scores that broke the 80 barrier. Yet such was the intense competition that neither finished with a medal. Hester and his Uthopia were fifth with 82.857. As for Gal, he was ninth with an 80.267, and appeared pleased with how his baby had done.

I was hoping that the Unite State’s Steffen Peters would make it to the podium, but it was not to be. Just two years ago, his Ravel got a 78.542 at the World Equestrian Games, the highest score of any American horse ever in that event. Thursday, Peters got 77.268, but it just wasn’t enough. He wound up 17th.

So it’s official -- the United States is going home without a single equestrian medal for the first time since 1952. But they’re not the only ones. The German team, long the dominant force in dressage, are going home without an individual medal -- for only the third time in 60 years.

Big changes are hitting dressage. It’s a global chessboard where all the pieces are horses, and many nations play as fortunes shift. Great Britain had never won a dressage medal, but is a rising power in the sport after Thursday. The Netherlands, a traditional rival with Germany, still holds their own because of good riders and outstanding horses they’re breeding.

In that London chess match, a Dutch-bred horse that wasn’t even there cast a long shadow. In 2010, hoping to ensure a gold in London, Germany pried Moorlands Totilas away from the Netherlands by making the horse’s Dutch owners an offer they couldn’t refuse, rumored to be 15 million euros. But the German maneuver fell through when Totilas’ German rider caught mono and couldn’t train. Germany had to scratch Totilas from the team for now.

So Totilas’ absence in London cleared the way for Valegro to checkmate Germany and other countries. Totilas is widely viewed as the only horse who could have beaten Valegro, and many fans were disappointed that they didn’t get to see the showdown.

Spain faces a different problem on the chessboard. Their Andalusians are a heritage breed that reflect the old-time “baroque horse” we see in paintings and statues. They’re elegant but compact, with a massive neck and body. For years, Spanish riders have been gallantly taking their old-school horses around the global chessboard, hoping to convince the judges. Now and then, they do. But in London this morning, the Andalusian entry, Fuego, only placed 10th and didn’t break 80 on scoring.

The trend to the taller, longer, leggier warmblood horses, with their supermodel look, is becoming unstoppable. Warmbloods are a mix of “hot blood” (for example, Thoroughbreds with their sensitive, nervous temperament) with “cold blood” (mostly the old European light harness breeds, with their calm and steady nature). All the horses that made the podium Thursday are warmbloods.

After Dujardin’s run, there was a huge kiss-and-cry as everybody ran to congratulate the rider.

In due course, back at the home stable, Hester will be taking Valegro for a few relaxed jaunts across the green countryside. He loves the horse and enjoys riding him for fun. But financially speaking, with Valegro now worth a fortune, the moment of truth has come. He has told the press that he will likely sell Valegro, but he and Charlotte hope to keep the horse in Britain -- for obvious reasons.

Team LGBT 2012: 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze (if a country, currently tied for 39th)

Seimone Augustus, USA, Basketball

Team USA had its closest call of these Olympics but still topped Australia, 86-73, in their semifinal game. Augustus scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and added an assist. Next, the U.S. faces France for the gold medal on Saturday.

Seimone Augustus, USA, Basketball

Team USA blasted Canada in the quarterfinals, 91-48. Augustus had 9 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds in 20 minutes of play. They play Australia in the semifinals.

Edward Gal, Netherlands, Equestrian

Gal pulled out a bronze medal in team Dressage on Tuesday with his horse, Undercover. Gal is headed into the individual finals on Wednesday.

The U.S. equestrian team is having a dismal time in London. They finished out of the medals in eventing and team jumping, two events where they’ve won gold in the past. Their next shot came Tuesday in dressage, where the U.S. always struggles, with the Grand Prix Special and finals for team medals. Thirty-two of the original 50 horses would go, including Ann Romney’s horse Rafalca and the competition’s two openly gay riders, Edward Gal of the Netherlands and Carl Hester of Great Britain.

For the U.S., their best chance of a high score was veteran pair Steffen Peters and Ravel, who have medaled in other world competitions but never at the Olympics. And the two did well, with a 76.381 that shot them briefly to the top of the leaderboard. But Rafalca and rider Jan Ebeling logged a 69.302, dragging down the U.S. team’s average. So did Tina Konyot and Calecto V, who managed a 70.651.

As a result, the U.S. team got their top hats handed to them, finishing sixth. Bronze has been the U.S.‘s sole metal in team dressage, but they haven’t won a bronze since the 2004 games in Athens, when openly gay teammates Robert Dover and Guenter Seidel scored high enough to medal. As for the individual competition, which is tougher to win, the U.S. has never won a medal of any kind.

So the Europeans controlled team standings on Tuesday, as they’ve always done in this event, so drenched in history and tradition. Germany has won team gold since 1976, whereas Great Britain -- unlike the U.S. -- had never won a dressage medal, period. But Britain has been working hard and was eager to debut on the podium.

The British dream came true on Tuesday. Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro scored a whopping 81.905. Hester and Uthopia were close behind with 80.571. The third British entry, Laura Bechtolscheimer and Mistral Hojris, scored 77.794. The total added up to gold, bumping Germany into second place.

The jubilation in the stands, with Union Jacks waving everywhere, was wild.

Meanwhile, Denmark and Netherlands were neck and neck for bronze. Gal and his new young horse, Undercover, turned in another creditable 75.556. Anky van Grunsven and Salinero had another disappointing run, considering their gold-medal past. So it was Adelinde Cornelissen on Parzival, with a big 81.984, who clinched bronze for the Netherlands.

Why does the U.S. struggle with dressage, in spite of our national love of the horse and our past golds in show jumping and eventing? There’s no lack of passion on the part of the Americans who do dedicate their lives to this sport. The reasons why are probably complex, and I won’t speculate here. But one fact is clear: Americans try to end their dressage drought by purchasing superior European horses.

In recent years, Europe has made big breakthroughs in the breeding of dressage horses. A wave of super-horses like Moorlands Totilas, Valegro and Parzival swept out of breeding programs in Netherlands, Germany and other countries. With good riders on these horses and massive public support, competition is seeing monster scores of 90 or more -- the highest ever in the sport’s history. U.S. sport-horse breeders are racing to bring in these winning bloodlines and catch up with Europe.

Meanwhile, some U.S. riders make big efforts to get aboard a top European-bred horse. Example: In 2003, Dover persuaded his patron to purchase FBW Kennedy, a German-bred that was one of the top 10 high-scoring horses at that time. Kennedy didn’t win an individual medal in Athens in 2004, but he did carry Dover to a team bronze. Another example: Danish-bred Ravel, who was purchased for Peters by his patron in 2006, with an eye to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Ravel put Peters on the world map as a rider, but an Olympics win eluded the pair.

With these examples in mind, it’s possible to analyze the Romneys’ 2006 purchase of Rafalca, a German-bred Oldenburg mare with a distinguished pedigree. If the Romneys aimed for the podium in dressage, why didn’t they go for super-horse Totilas when he was available in 2010? The 15 million euros reportedly paid for the black stallion would have been easily manageable. But if the Romneys had plunged on Totilas, they would be facing even ruder questions about their finances than they’re facing now due to the lower-profile horse whose part-ownership they evidently decided to stick with. My guess is that Rafalca was the politically smart choice for Ann Romney.

So Rafalca now goes home -- she was not in the top 18, so she didn’t qualify for the Freestyle.

Our two European gay guys now pocket their team medals, and go on to the Grand Prix Freestyle. There, riding to music, Gal, Hester and 16 others will ride for the individual gold on Aug. 9.

Peters and Ravel are the only U.S. pair to advance to the Freestyle, where they will compete against horses that have scored 80 or above. Ravel has never scored that high, and he is due to be retired after London. So he and Peters will have to come up with a big, big run.

Meanwhile, the individual show-jumping finals take place Wednesday, which will feature two Americans -- Rich Fellers and McLain Ward. If they and Peters don’t do well enough, the U.S. will go home without an equestrian medal for the first time since 1956.

Netherlands Women’s Field Hockey - Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen

The Dutch completed a clean sweep of Group A, beating host Great Britain in their final round-robin match. The Brits held a 1-0 lead with under a half-hour to play before Netherlands scored two unanswered second-half goals. The Dutch will play the Kiwis in the semifinals on Wednesday for a spot in the finals.

Out lesbian Megan Rapinoe scored her second and third goals of these Olympics, leading the U.S. women’s soccer team to a 4-3 victory over Canada in extra time.

Down 1-0, Rapinoe tied the game in the second half with the Americans’ first goal on a fantastic corner kick. She followed it up just 16 minutes later to again tie the match, this time at 2-2. Alex Morgan scored the game-winner in the 122nd minute.

Seimone Augustus, USA, Basketball

Team USA pounded China, 114-66, taking the top spot in their group. Augustus scored 8 points with 3 rebounds and 2 assists. The U.S. will take on Canada in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Alexandra Lacrabere, France, Handball

In a rare match between two teams with out lesbians, Lacrabere bested Rikke Skov and Denmark, 30-24. Lacrabere scored once on six shots with seven assists. France plays Montenegro on Tuesday in the quarterfinals.

Here is an update on some of the gay Olympians competing today and this weekend.

Imke Duplitzer, Germany, Fencing

Germany finished the team epee event in fifth place. They lost their quarterfinal match to gold-medalist China, 45-42, then beat Ukraine and Romania in the consolation bracket.

Carl Hester, Great Britain, Equestrian

Hester was spectacular on the opening day of the Dressage event, posting the highest score of any of the riders with his horse, Uthopia. The score of 77.720 was almost a full point ahead of second place. The British team currently leads the team competition as well.

Netherlands Women’s Field Hockey - Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen

The Dutch women scored a big 1-0 win over China to separate themselves from the pack in Group A. None of the out women scored, but all except Dirkse van den Heuvel had a shot on goal. They are assured of a spot in the semifinals with a win or tie in their final two games, or a tie or loss by the Chinese and Koreans.

NBC devoted a prime-time interview on Tuesday to U.S. Olympic dressage rider Jan Ebeling, with the host breathlessly describing his Oldenberg mare Rafalca as “the most talked about horse” at the Games. NBC failed to clarify that the buzz was not about the mare’s chances to medal in dressage, it was about her connection to U.S. Presidential campaign politics, through being co-owned by Ann Romney.

All of us at Outsports have been breathlessly waiting to see the two openly gay dressage riders at the Games -- Edward Gal of the Netherlands and Carl Hester of Great Britain -- go up against Ebeling and Rafalca. We find the competition situation deliciously ironic, since the Romney campaign puts a political spin on this horse, with the two gay riders’ romantic relationships being something that Mitt Romney’s policies don’t approve of.

Today is Day 1 of a two-day go-around for all 48 horses entered in the Olympic grand prix. When this go-round is over, the top 25 horses will go on to a second round of individual competition, the Special. From the second go-around, the top 15 horses go on to the final, which is the Freestyle with music -- always a show-stopper. The winner gets the individual gold medal. Meanwhile, the cumulative scores will also determine which team gets the team medal.

So today, despite rain clouds looming over London’s magnificent Greenwich Park, good-looking blond Carl Hester of Britain and his horse Uthopia had it together. They hoofed it to the top of the leader board with an excellent score of 77.720. They even outpaced veteran medalists Anky van Grunsven and her Salinero, who had to settle for a 73.480.

The best that Rafalca could do, under Ebeling, was a so-so 70.243. By the time half the entries made their runs today, Rafalca wound up in 13th place. With 24 more horses to go tomorrow, the Romney horse can only slide further down in the rankings if other horses score higher than she.

Edward Gal and his horse Undercover are slated to go tomorrow. So is Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and her outstanding, high-scoring horse Valegro. These are only two of the possible threats that Rafalca faces on Friday.

Tomorrow, we wait breathlessly to see what Edward Gal will do. His horse is young, experiencing his first Olympics, so it’s hard to predict what could happen. Gal and Undercover will be seventh in the lineup.

The U.S. team has three more horses to go tomorrow, including the redoubtable Steffen Peters and his Ravel. Right now, the U.S. is No. 7 in the team rankings. High scores by these three entries might push the U.S. up into the team medals. But it will take some doing.

As the grand prix rounds progress, judges score the horses and riders on how well they execute the required movements around the arena - walk, trot, canter, halt, back up, extended trot and canter, trot in place (piaffe), turns in place at the canter (pirouette), changing leads at the canter, etc.

It’s all basic, classical horsemanship, with the rider delivering a stream of subtle cues to the horse, who responds with what is hopefully the utmost perfection. This art is ancient, created by the Greeks and refined through centuries of European history to achieve maximum development of horse and rider.

The absence from the Games of Gal’s celebrated mount Totilas is felt by the horse enthusiasts there. Everybody wanted to see the electrifying black stallion at this Olympics. Totilas was a once-in-a-lifetime ride for Gal, and he loved that horse -- the pair had turned the dressage world upside down with record-breaking scores at the World Equestrian Games in 2010. When Gal learned that Totilas had been sold out from under him, he reportedly broke down and cried. Now living in Germany, with an injured knee and his new rider laid up with illness, this great horse faces an uncertain future.

As for Rafalca... despite her so-so showing, NBC is still tooting the political horn for her. Photos and links all over the NBC Olympics website show that “Rafalca made her run” and “Rafalca takes Olympic stage.” At the end of the day tomorrow, she and Ebeling still have a shot at being among the top 25 pairs that move on to the “special.” Will she be among them? Or will the dreaded gays be among the forces that keep her in the barn? Stay tuned.

Judith Arndt, Germany, Cycling

Arndt won a silver medal in the women’s time trial on Wednesday, capturing the first medal for an out Olympian in London! Her time of 37:50.29 was about 16 seconds behind the gold-medal time of the United States’ Kristin Armstrong. Arndt also previously won silver in the road race in 2004. Congratulations to Judith!

Seimone Augustus, USA, Basketball

The Americans again dominated, this time destroying Turkey, 89-58. Augustus had nine points with one block, one assist and one rebound in just under 19 minutes of play.

Netherlands Women’s Field Hockey - Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen

The Netherlands raced to a 3-0 lead before hanging on to beat Japan, 3-2. Lammers lead all scorers with two goals, including one just three minutes into the game. Paumen received a green card during the match.

Sweden Women’s Soccer - Lisa Dahlkvist, Jessica Landstrom, Hedvig Lindahl

Sweden led 2-0 after just 16 minutes but only eeked out a a 2-2 tie with Canada on Tuesday. Lindahl started the game; Dahlkvist subbed in at the 53rd minute and committed two fouls in just 37 minutes of play.

Throughout the 2012 Olympic Games, we will have a daily recap of how the out lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex athletes performed in London.