Italian Olympic archer Lucilla Boari publicly came out during an emotional press conference.
Friday (30 July) proved to be monumental for Boari as she became the first Italian woman to win an Olympic medal in archery.
Shortly after her massive achievement, the 24-year-old athlete participated in a video press conference to discuss her historic win.
However, the press conference was cut short when a special Facebook message from Dutch archer Saane De Laat was transmitted through.
“Congratulations! It’s super, super, super amazing and I’m so proud of you,” Laat exclaimed. “I can’t wait until you’re here so I can give you the biggest hug there is. I love you so much and great job.”
After the message ended, a visibly emotional Boari revealed she and Laat are in a relationship, stating: “That’s Saane, my girlfriend.”
Later on in the press conference, the young athlete described her incredible win with the phrase “carpe diem”.
“I’ve been dreaming about this moment quite a lot, if I can be honest, and that dream just came true. I am the happiest girl right now,” she stated.
Boari isn’t the only athlete that has opened up about their sexuality at the Olympics.
After taking home the silver medal in rowing, Polish athlete Katarzyna Zillmann thanked her girlfriend and used her platform to support LGBTQ+ issues.
Although it wasn’t the first time that Zillmann has publicly talked about her sexuality, she did mention that this is the first time it was ever acknowledged.
“The conversations with you after the medal race were not groundbreaking for me,” she said. “I’ve already talked about it in interviews before, but for some reason, it wasn’t published.”
She went on to open up about wanting to support other LGBTQ+ athletes and people by using her platform.
“I know that in this way I will help others,” Zillmann said.
“It was enough that I showed up in a T-shirt with the words ‘Sport against homophobia’ and I got a few messages from young girls practising rowing.
“One of them opened up to me, described her difficult home situation to me, and confessed that I helped her a lot with my attitude. One such message is enough to completely forget about thousands of hate comments and disgusted faces.”
The Tokyo Olympics has been a game-changer for queer representation.
More than 160 LGBTQ+ athletes are competing at this year’s games, which is the most in Olympic history.
Alongside the growing representation, the medal tally for Team LGBTQ+ has steadily grown over the years.
According to Outsports, if the team were a country they would currently rank at 11th place.
Check out the full list of the Tokyo Olympics openly queer athletes here.
Related: Tokyo 2020: Tom Daley says he feels “empowered” to be a gay Olympic champion.
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