“I guess [coming out publicly] seems like a weight off my shoulders. I’ve been playing a lot better than I’ve ever played before. I think I’m just enjoying myself and I’m happy.”

— Megan Rapinoe, a midfielder for the US women’s soccer team, who scored three goals on the way to the team’s gold medal. Rapinoe came out in the press before the start of the London Olympics. (Associated Press, Aug. 8)

“It’s an absurdly low number. Sports is still the final closet in society.”

— Jim Buzinski, founder of OutSports.com, on the low number of openly gay elite athletes. (Associated Press, Aug. 9)

“I am an archer, middle-aged and a lesbian. I am also cranky before my first cup of coffee. None of these aspects define who I am, they are simply part of me.”

— Karen Hultzer, an archer from South Africa who participated in the London Games, in an interview with OutSports. (Associated Press, Aug. 9)

“Ah, nuts, missed the finals by the skin of a bee’s penis. But I could not have done more.”

— Openly gay Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, who won a stunning gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, commenting via Twitter on being eliminated in the semifinal for the 10-meter platform final in London. (OutSports.com, Aug. 11)

“When gay athletes ask my advice, I always tell them ‘safety first.’ For some people sport is their lifeline, the only thing they can do. … If I had come out as a teenager, as people sometimes tell me I should have done, I would now be a moderately fat psychologist in Manchester.”

— British athlete John Amaechi, the first NBA player to come out, who called the lack of out Olympians “embarrassing.” (Guardian UK, Aug. 9)

Top photo: U.S. Soccer star Megan Rapinoe (by Ampatent/CC 3.0)