When the U.S. team named the 12 players for the women’s basketball team for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (which includes at least 195 out athletes), WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark was not included on the team. This surprised some, but others expected it.

And now here they are, fighting for the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris. The players and coaches here have not lost a single game.

More than half of the US team in Paris – at least seven players – are members of the LGBTQ community and are out, making the US women’s basketball team one of the “gayest” teams at the Olympics.

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Of course, Clark’s omission made headlines. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Experienced leaders mean a lot, especially when you’re throwing together players from across the WNBA. Experience means a lot.

Clark had a good first few weeks with Indiana before any draft choices were made. She was 13th on the WNBA scoring list at the time with a 37% shooting percentage. That’s not great. She was fourth in the league in assists.

No doubt, she is having a good rookie season.

Yet people like Jason Whitlock claiming the black LGBTQ community forced Team USA to give up on Clark are absurd. Whitlock has railed in the harshest terms about Clark – a rookie in the WNBA – being left off a team of legends. But he’s the one we’re talking about, and that’s what he wants.

It echoed Clay Travis’ nonsense about Clark being bullied by black lesbians in the league. There are white players on the team, like Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi.

There are other players who are not on the team who could claim that they were insulted. This happens every time there is a “selection”.

Regardless, the United States is represented on the basketball court by 12 women and more than half of them have come out publicly.

And that doesn’t even include the two out LGBTQ people – head coach Cheryl Reeve and assistant coach Curt Miller – who have also come out publicly.

Here are the seven out LGBTQ players who will represent the United States in women’s basketball at the Summer Olympics in Paris and compete for gold.

Breanna Stewart

Breanna Stewart is one of the best basketball players of all time. She won two gold medals with the US team and two WNBA championships with Seattle. In both years she was the most valuable player in the finals.

Diana Taurasi

Diana Taurasi is considered by many to be THE greatest female basketball player of all time. Taurasi is by far the best WNBA player of all time, has won three WNBA titles and has been named an All-Star ten times, all with the Phoenix Mercury. She is competing in her sixth Summer Olympics and has won gold each time before.

Alyssa Thomas

Alyssa Thomas has been in the WNBA for a decade and has been named an All-Star four times. She was selected fourth overall in the WNBA draft in 2014. Still, this will be the first Olympics for the Connecticut Sun star. If it took Thomas 10 years, you have to wonder why people are screaming that Clark didn’t get it done in 10 weeks. Thomas is engaged to her Sun teammate DeWanna Bonner.

Brittney Griner

Brittney Griner is perhaps the most famous player in WNBA history following her imprisonment in Russia. Just 18 months after her release, she is re-entering the international stage. She hasn’t won a WNBA title since her sophomore season in 2014, despite being named an All-Star in nearly every season she played: nine times. This will be her third Olympic Games, having previously won gold twice.

Jewell Lloyd

Jewell Loyd is seeking her second Olympic gold medal after winning gold with the U.S. team in Tokyo. She has won two WNBA titles, both with Seattle, and was the WNBA league’s leading scorer last season.

Chelsea Grey

There aren’t many WNBA players who have won championships with two different teams, but Chelsea Gray is one of them. She has one championship with the Los Angeles Sparks and now two with the Las Vegas Aces. She was also on the U.S. team that won gold in Tokyo.

Kahleah Copper

Kahleah Copper was the MVP of the 2021 WNBA Finals with the Phoenix Mercury and won the league championship title. Last year, she posted engagement photos with Swedish national player Binta Daisy Drammeh, but they have since apparently been deleted.

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will take place from July 26 to August 11. Outsports will cover Team LGBTQ in depth before, during and after the Games.

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