Gay Couple will Compete Side-By-Side in Olympic Event

Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud will be competing together in the Olympic dressage event as openly out AND openly together gay men. The members of the Netherlands Olympic team have been together for more than a decade and say that being a team in their sport has only brought them closer.

“Competitions are a way of life, and it is so much fun if you are with someone who precisely understands that and knows what you are doing, dedicating all your time to horses,” Minderhoud tells OutSports. The two also competed together in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where they placed fourth in the team dressage event. They also earned a bronze at the 2014 World Championships for dressage.

While it’s not often that couples compete together in their sport, they say that the community is overwhelmingly supportive of LGBTQ individuals. “In our sport it’s not an exception being gay,” Minderhoud says. In fact, some of the top equestrian riders in the world are all openly gay: Robert Dover, Blyth Tait, and Carl Hester.

“There has always been a level playing field for all genders,” Tait says of the equestrian world. “I think it is still one of very few sports where men and women compete together, have no advantage and, as such, blend happily.”

Gal previously made headlines in 2012 when he beat the American team who’s horse was owned by Ann Romney, wife to then-Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Romney was notably anti-LGBTQ on the campaign trail, but has since become a prominent, centrist-leaning senator who frequently collaborates with his colleagues across the aisle.

This years 2021 Tokyo Olympics are being touted as some of the most pro-LGBTQ in history, with at least 121 out-and-proud athletes. Gal and Minderhoud will certainly stand out, though, as the only gay couple competing side-by-side.

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