Gender Identity and Olympic Games: The Iridescence in Tokyo 2020 Estudios LGBTIQ+ Comunicación y Cultura

. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has brought great strides in terms of equality and inclusion. At least 185 publicly out LGBTIQ+ athletes have attended this global mega-event, which is more than triple the number from the 2016 Rio Olympics. This study investigates the sports participation of the LGBTIQ+ group based on qualitative method of literature review and logical analysis. It first examines the literature about the LGBTIQ+ group’s sports participation and then sheds light on the evolution of gender characteristics of Olympics and sports from a historical research perspective. Finally, taking Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as an example, this work discusses the state quo and future of the LGBTIQ+ group’s Olympic participation. The results indicate that sex discrimination in sports has a long history. As the most important global sporting event, the Olympic Games have gone through different stages from the “male- exclusivity” to the gender binary system. However, true gender equality has not yet been realized. In addition, it points out that the Tokyo Olympics is of positive significance for promoting inclusiveness and equality. The ever-developing inclusiveness and diversity will probably break the gender competition mechanism of the Olympic Games. Sports institutions need to deal well with issues of gender equality and fair competition. Traditional VS inclusiveness: in 2.6. The first of trans great attempt or challenge to


Introduction
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has brought great strides in terms of equality and inclusion. According to Outsports 3 (2021c), at least 185 publicly out LGBTIQ+ athletes have attended this global mega-event, which is more than triple the number from the 2016 Rio Olympics. This brings back the discussion of gender and the Olympic Games to the public again. For long, sports have historically been a male domination, reserved for men who meet the 1 LYU Dongye, Research Assistant, Tongji University, China. Email: lyudongye@tongji.edu.cn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0537-1930 2 WU Zhuotong, PhD candidate, Durham University, The UK, Email: plxt12@durham.ac.uk ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4545-0657 3 Outsports.com -first website dedicated to the LGBT+community's experiences in sport.

Estudios LGBTIQ+ Comunicación y Cultura
ISSNe: 2792-3622 https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/eslg.77840 ARTICULOS requirements of " masculinity" (Connell, 2005). The Olympics, being as not only a sporting event but also a cultural and social world event, initially did not allow genders other than males to participate. Women's physical participation in the Olympics can be traced back to the 1900 Paris. 19 female athletes competed in several informal events, though the IOC 4 deemed their participation illegal. In 1924, females' participation in the Olympics were officially recognized by the authority and till today their involvement has become the norm (Nie, 2019). Now we are very accustomed to admiring the performance of female athletes in the Olympic. But a large part of this credit should be counted on the early female pioneers, who made great sacrifices and unremitting efforts.
In recent studies, many terms have been used to refer to those who do not identify with the traditional sex and gender order. Some studies use the term "gender or sexual identity minorities" encompassing all the diverse communities that are different from the majority of people in society in terms of sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual behavior (Sullivan, 2013), which is also known as LGBT in the media. As the concept expands, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other non-heterosexual and gender diverse were all subsumed under the acronym LGBTIQ+. Sexual minorities are more prone to suffer violence and unfair treatment than others in their work and daily life, and they have relatively lower visibility (Hatzenbuehler, 2009). Although the LGBTIQ+ community has been actively engaging in sports, they still have to face unkindness such as homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and other unfair treatments (Pérez-Samaniego et al., 2019). Especially transgender groups are more often exposed to harassment and disrespect, and this is a worldwide problem (Englefield, 2016;Pérez-Samaniego, 2019).
The study of Gender-identity minority in sports has been rising in recent years. Scholars have studied this topic from different perspectives. For instance, the experiences of LGBT+ individuals in sport contexts Kavoura & Kokkonen, 2020;Pérez-Samaniego et al., 2019), the public attitudes towards LGBT+ people in sport (Flores et al., 2020;Demers, 2017), the sports culture and participation of youth LGBT+ group (Atteberry-Ash & Woodford, 2017; Greenspan et al., 2019;Kulick et al., 2018), media coverage and online comments about LGBT+ individuals in sport (Kian et al., 2015;Li, 2017;Magrath, 2019), LGBT+ inclusion of sporting organizations (Cunningham & Melton, 2014;Storr, 2021;Lawley, 2020), participation behaviors in LGBT-focused community sport (Mock et al., 2019), and barriers and solutions of the inclusion of LGBT+ in university sports (Phipps, 2019;Phipps, 2020) However, many scholars have pointed out that LGBTIQ+ community's sports experience might be not well represented Krane, 2019). Some articles have been questioned because of putting gender-identity minorities who have faced various unreasonable treatment in sports together for research (Kettley-Linsell, 2020;Lucas-Carr & Krane, 2011;Semerjian, 2018), especially trans prejudice in Sports (Cunningham & Pickett, 2017). most studies in LGBTIQ+ group and sports have only been carried out in a small number of English-speaking areas such as the United States, Britain, Australia, Ireland (Ceatha et al., 2019;Braumüller et al., 2020;Kavoura & Kokkonen, 2020;Robertson et al., 2019;Storr, 2021). Braumüller et al. (2020) provided a comprehensive study of the sports participation of LGBT+ groups (athletes and non-athletes) for the first time in continental Europe. Few studies have investigated from other regions, such as Asia and Africa. Therefore, very little is currently known about LGBTIQ+ group, sports and Olympics in Asian country (Krane, 2019;Hartmann-Tews et al., 2020).
Based on qualitative method of literature review and logical analysis, this article examines gender characteristics of sports and, discusses LGBTIQ+ group's participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The article aims to contribute to this growing area of research by capturing the just-concluded global sports event, and offer some important insights into the relationship among gender and LGBTIQ+, sports and Olympics.

Gender characteristics of sports: "masculinity" in Olympics
Most of the Olympic events we see now have set two groups, male and female. However, in the ancient Olympics, and even in the early stage of the modern Olympics, only men were officially involved in the Olympics. The Olympic Games and its various sports events have been given a solid masculine character, which can still be perceived in today's media and advertising related to sports topics.
The question of why sports are male-centered can probably be answered by history. In a relatively long period, men are considered a symbol of productivity, particularly in the agrarian age, men often play a more critical role in labor. Therefore, from that time, men were seen as the people who really did sports for their "producing" ability. In addition, starting from the ancient Greek period, sport was seen as a tool of military training, which was closely linked to city-state politics (Carter, 2020). According to Anderson (2014), the historical evolution of Western sports defines sports as a terrain that endows male "masculinity". "Real" sport has become a field of "masculinity" that 4 Abbreviation of the International Olympic Committee. Founded by Pierre de Coubertin in 1894, the International Olympic Committee is a nongovernmental sports organization. It is the authority responsible for organizing the modern (Summer, Winter, and Youth) Olympic Games. avoids "masculine femininity" (de Haan et al., 2015). The Olympic motto "higher, faster, and stronger", which has been applied for a hundred years, also reflects this, for men have always been considered the creators of human limits. All of these have led to sports being understood as a male-centered field.
Sociologically, sports are used to represent an element of sociological distinction, a mechanism for configuring gender identities that have been tacitly embodied in the social construction of the body of men and women (Bourdieu, 1988;Sánchez & Moscoso, 2015). In this setting, men have to be strong and energetic, while women must be harmonious and elegant, and this mechanism is also the origin of the modern gender stereotype to a certain extent (Moscoso & Piedra, 2019). Although modern sports have gradually weakened this concept and moved towards inclusiveness and equality, in some traditional countries, especially some Muslim countries, sports are still regarded as men's exclusive rights, and women's participation is rigorously restricted (Benn et al., 2012;Ahmad et al., 2020), not to mention that others gender identities is still defined as legally unacceptable. This concept of strong male characteristics in sports rejects the expression of multiple genders and reflects the concept of hegemonism in sports (Griffin, 2012). The evolution of sports from ancient times to the present is based on the dual-gender relationship in what is considered typically masculine, feminine, so it represents a kind of heterosexual mechanism (Moscoso & Piedra, 2019) considerably. Scholars such as Foucault believe that heterosexuality can be understood as a power relationship through which sexual behavior is regulated, homosexuality is demonized, and other forms of gender identity become taboos (Foucault, 2005). Sex binary has forced the sport system to assume that athletes can be assigned to rigid divisions according to their biological sex. Moreover, like family background or social class (Bourdieu, 1988), gender concepts also play a prominent role of power and social control in sports institutions, trying to discourage those who question them from participating. This reflects sex segregation's dominance in conceptualizing sports, exceptionally organized sports . In addition, competitive sports force individuals to "align themselves as female or male". For example, when athletes register for the game, they will automatically be classified according to their gender category. This is an unconscious decision for athletes (Krane et al., 2012), because many of them just put a check mark somewhere in the gender column without thinking. All these are reflections of long-standing gender discrimination and mistreatment in sports.

From female exclusion Olympics to "gender equality"
Some certain groups' participation in the Olympics has long been explicitly prohibited. The first Modern Olympic Games in 1896 strictly inherited the ancient Greek tradition: all competitions were men's events, and women were prohibited from participating. After the 19th century, feminism began to emerge in Western countries. With the gradual awakening of women's self-awareness and the continuous improvement of their education, they began to assume and engage in the responsibilities and positions that have been occupied by men. Some women are no longer satisfied with the audience status, but have to personally participate in some leisure sports activities. Participating in the Olympics has become the key to women's fight for equal rights with men in the field of sports. Under the influence of these thoughts and ideologies, 19, 8, and 36 female athletes participated in the subsequent 2nd to 4th Olympic Games competing in informal events such as archery, tennis and figure skating (Nie, 2019;Ren, 2015). However, the IOC did not recognize this. And the father of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, himself is a firm opponent of women's participation in the Olympics. The organization insisted that "women's participation in the Olympic Games" was illegal for the reason that preconceived female roles of that period did not match the idea conveyed by the Modern Olympic Games (Ferez et al., 2017). The appearance of female athletes did not conform with the assigned women image of discretion, modesty, and fragility (Vigarello, 2004).
In the women's rights movement of the last century, equal sports participation has become a substantial demand. Many female athletes actively participate in the Olympics, hoping to break the gender barriers to sports participation. At the same time, the Olympic Games, working as an important fulcrum, would bring greater social attention to the women's equal rights movement. The active and fit female athletes' image also prompts people to re-examine the widespread gender discrimination issues not only in sports grounds but also in many scenarios of society.
From 1924 that the IOC passed a resolution allowing "women to participate in the Olympics" to 1994, at the 100th Anniversary Congress of the Olympic Games held in Paris, the new entry "Must promote women's participation in sports at all levels" was added to the newly revised "Olympic Charter," it can be said that "women's participation in the Olympics" was fully realized. In the 2012 London Olympics, the proportion of women athletes increased to 44%. It was the first time that all delegations had female athletes participating.
It was always difficult to deal with stereotypes and prejudices in tradition. The struggle for women's equal participation in the Olympics has lasted for a century, but complete equality in terms of rules and treatment has not been achieved. Since 2000, China and the United States have been the major medal powers in the Olympic Games. The number of Chinese female athletes participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is three times that of male athletes, while the number of medals won by American female athletes accounted for 58% of the total number of medals won by the USA. Nonetheless, the efforts of female athletes have not received enough attention and respect, both at the media level and the competition system level (Devine, 2021;Nie, 2019). Nevertheless, in any case, those women, through their protest and reclamation, have left behind battle experiences for other vulnerable groups, such as gender or ethnic minorities (Ferez et al., 2017).

2.3.
LGBTIQ+ in Tokyo 2020: A sporting mega event of diverse "sexuality culture" Sexual orientation was added to the anti-discrimination clause of the International Olympic Committee's charter in 2015 in response to global protests surrounding the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (Davidson & McDonald, 2017;Travers & Shearman, 2016). Since then, the diversified sexual orientation has become an important part of the value of Olympic. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics is known as the most open Olympics for LGBTIQ + athletes (Shock, 2021). At least 185 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and non-binary athletes participated in the sporting event (Outsports, 2021c). This number is more than three times the number of people participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics and even more than the total number of open athletes participating in all the previous Olympics (summer and winter included).
The history of publicly out LGBITQ+ player's participation in the Olympics can be traced back to 1968. Dr. Tom Waddell 5 represented the United States in the decathlon and placed sixth among the 33 competitors. (FGG, 2021). In this sense, the history of Olympics participation of the LGBTIQ+ community is very recent (Moscoso & Piedra, 2019). However, according to some recent studies on the LGTBI population, at least 6% of the European population considered themselves a member of this group (Dalia, 2016), while the figure in the USA is 4% (Sageusa.org, 2020). Logically, these figures should probably represent a general percentage of the average frequency of LGTBI people in sport. Why is the probability of the LGBITQ+ group becoming high-level athletes participating in world competitions so low? In effect, it is not difficult to understand the deviations between the two facts. As we have related before, throughout the history of the sport, sexual orientation represented a disguised taboo. Therefore, it is with great probability that many of the athletes of the past and have not represented this sexual minority. According to Scupham-Bilton, the earliest known LGBTIQ+ Olympian is Leif Rovsing, who competed in the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games. The Danish tennis player is considered the "pioneer for LGBT inclusion in Olympics (Outsports, 2021a).
Entering the 21st century, the steady voice of minority groups has increased. Many events serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage or as a celebration of LGBTIQ+ social and self-acceptance. The first Pride House was initiated at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and then passed down as a historical heritage. As part of the Olympics project, Pride house Tokyo was opened aiming at providing a safe and welcoming environment for various sexual orientations individuals, athletes or fans, supporters or officials. It is the first permanent facility in charge of comprehensive functions related to sexual minorities in a traditional Asian country with a long history like Japan. Thomas Bach, the IOC President, called Pride house Tokyo "an important testament to the integration of diversity and inclusion in the Tokyo Olympics" (Pride House Tokyo Japan, 2020).

Pride of the "proud group": expression and controversy
On July 26, 2021, Thomas Daley finally achieved his Olympic gold medal dream in the synchronized 10-meter platform. This is also the first gold medal won by the LGBTIQ+ athletes of the 2020 Tokyo. The British diver announced him "out" a few years ago (Magrath et al., 2017). In addition to being an athlete, he is also a national popular social media and TV star, despite the fact that some local media have regulated an idealized image of masculinity for male athletes (Vincent & Crossman, 2008). "I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion. I feel very empowered by that." Daley never concealed his sense of belonging and pride for the LGBTIQ+ group, and some media believed him to be the spokesperson of this community (The Japan Times, 2021). The data shows that there have been at least 564 LGBTQ athletes to compete in the Olympic Games, 475 of which have competed in the Summer Olympics. And among these 475 athletes, approximately 42% have won at least one medal (Outsports, 2021a).
There is more than one athlete like Daley who actively speaks for the minority groups on the podium. We can see the positive side from them, but as the IOC is traditionally control-oriented, no protests were admitted by it. American athletes Raven Saunders defied the Olympic ban on protests to send a message of intersectional inclusion after the win of a silver medal. Some hold the view that guidelines on protest and expression must be expanded to allow athletes to share more of themselves, especially in uplifting calls for racial and social justice and all who are historical without a voice. However, the IOC would disagree on that, not only for it can infringe on sponsorship rights and even cause serious political problems. Like what American journalist Alan Abrahamson said, "If you let every single person argue his or her own political viewpoint, it would be like the 'Tower of Babel,' then you would not have Olympic games." Fair and unbiased Olympics games have always been advocated by the IOC, and perhaps it is also part of the connotation of ancient Olympic games 6 .

Traditional values VS inclusiveness: gender equality in Japan
Tokyo 2020 brings attention to the LGBTIQ+ groups in Japan and even Asian countries. Gender-identity minorities' rights in Asia are limited in comparison to many other areas of the world. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed and 5 Dr. Tom Waddell is an American Olympic decathlete who competed in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. He is best known for founding the Gay Games, a sports competition modeled on the Olympics for athletes of all sexual orientations. 6 The ancient Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states of Ancient Greece. During the celebration these games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their cities to the games in safety. even punished with the death penalty in many countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia (LGBT rights in Asia, 2021). In this Olympics, the United States provided the most LGBTIQ+ athletes, with more than 30 athletes. In comparison, there are only five publicly out players from Asia, namely Israel, India, and the Philippines. For athletes who grew up in Asian cultural backgrounds, "coming out" requires more courage.
Gender equality has always been a cause for concern in Japan. Despite its modern, industrialized society, Japan's GII (Gender Inequality Index) ranks at 19th on the 2019 report (UNDP, 2019), which is relatively low for developed countries. This indicator is more like depicting the patriarchal social pattern in Japan, focusing more on the living conditions of Japanese women rather than "gender-identity minorities." Moreover, it seems that, unlike many Arab countries, there is no harsh "homophobia" in Japanese religion and culture. Traditional Japanese male homosexuality is often considered as an expression and extension of a person's social power, and, as a Confucian Asian country, Japanese culture has not historically envisaged a "normative connection" between gender and sexual preference because all men can engage in activities of the same sex and opposite sex (Lee, 2016;McLelland & Suganuma, 2009). However, this does not prevent LGBTIQ+ groups from being discriminated against. It is not only women who suffer unequal treatment in a society dominated by male values. So far, Japan, as the host country of the Olympic Games, has not seen a case of an Olympic athlete who has come out publicly. The invisible pressure brought by traditional culture does exist.
Sexual orientation and gender identity issues are considered by the IOC to be the basis of the 2020 Olympics' "diversity and inclusiveness" strategy. To promote the inclusiveness of gender issues, Tokyo 2020 contributed a lot in many aspects. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has passed a bill that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in advance of the city hosting the Summer Olympics. This new Tokyo law stated that the government will "conduct measures needed to make sure that diversity is respected in all corners of the city" (Asia times, 2018). Besides, Japan has made progress toward protecting LGBTIQ+ community in recent years (Human Rights Watch, 2018). For instance, the newly revised Japan's "Equal Employment Law" has added an item against the same-sex harassment. In addition, Japan has also voted for two United Nation resolutions to end violence and mistreatment in the light of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Many previously discussed phenomena show that Japanese society's awareness of LGBTQ groups is on the rise. However, the incident in which former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori made improper remarks that discriminated against women during his tenure as chairman of the Tokyo Olympic Committee is still shocking. Ironically, the Tokyo Olympic Committee was committed to "equality and tolerance." This reflects some inherent gender prejudices in Japanese society and culture and reminds us to be wary of "hypocritical equality and tolerance." 2.6. The first experience of trans athletes: great attempt or challenge to fairness?
In Tokyo, Laurel Hubbard has become the first out trans woman athlete in the 125-year history of the Olympic Games. This Zelanian professional weightlifter chose to do gender correction at the age of 35. After a period of hormone therapy, she started to compete in the women's category with a new identity and soon achieved even more dazzling results than when she participated in the men's competition. She won two silver medals in the women's over 90 kg class at the 2017 World Championships and was also listed in the top six in the 2019 competition.
In recent years, trans-people have been tolerated in many western countries (Elischberger et al., 2018). However, transgender's participation in competitive sports events remains contentious. When the IOC approved Laurel Hubbard to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2015, there were many doubts and oppositions. Although there is no performance-related data suggesting transgender individuals have competitive merits at any stage of their transition (Jones et al., 2016), it is believed that the physiological adjustments and retained basics from their previous physical experience when identifying as a man/woman, clearly gave them embodied advantages or, possibly disadvantages over their cisgender peers (Richardson & Chen, 2020;Torres et al., 2020). In fact, when Chinese athlete Li Wenwen broke the record and won the championship with a considerable advantage, Laurel Hubbard bid farewell to the game with three failed attempts. This result brought silence, and the previous doubts and discussions seemed to disappear. Whether transgender athletes should be able to participate in elite sport in accordance with their biological gender is a ponder-worthy issue, for it might undermine the fairness of the Olympic games. In some state-level competitions in the United States, there have been cases where gender is divided according to personal identity. In other words, biological men athletes can participate in female categories as long as they write down on the form that they consider themselves females. For some people, claiming to be a female will not lose anything but may bring competitive advantages. American high school athletes Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood (both biological male) won first and second place in the indoor 55 m race women's group, far surpassing the third place (biological gender female) (Richardson & Chen, 2020). This also triggered a discussion of equality and cheating. Especially in the female category, biological male athletes' participation is considered as a deprivation of fair competition rights for female athletes: "No matter how hard you work, you still cannot beat a male body." Some people believe that this will create a kind of sports crisis that some athletes give up challenging the limit and meet their own needs by choosing a group of relatively weak opponents. In the social media comment area, existing a joking message: "Is it if I claimed that I was seven-year-old mentally, I am able to participate in children's competitions?" (Kelly, 2021).
Due to concerns that transgender individuals might have athletic profit, various sports organizations have placed restrictions on this gender group (Riseman, 2021). In 2004, the IOC announced that athletes who had undergone sex reassignment surgery and had experienced hormone therapy for at least two years could participate in the competition with the new gender identity (International Olympic Committee, 2004). However, this competitive sport policy was modified in 2016 for the reason that the 2 years' mandatory restriction may disrespect "human rights". The new 2016 IOC policy suggests that transgender women may compete in a female category if they have publicly declared their female-identity gender for at least four years and their blood testosterone levels are below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months before the tournament, while transgender male competitors' participation is not restricted (International Olympic Committee, 2015). This consensus statement has become the general norm for many competitions (Jones et al., 2016). However, some organizations put more rigorous restrictions. For example, the World Athletics requires athletes participating in some female events to have a testosterone level of no more than 5 nmol/L.

Conclusion
As many studies have shown, nation image, gender identity, and the body, and other elements are intertwined with ideologies like globalization and modernization on the stage of the Olympic Games (Arnold, 2021;de Haan et al., 2015;Jones et al., 2016). Hosting the Olympic Games is an excellent opportunity to shape a brand and showcase culture and image in contemporary global geopolitics. The Tokyo 2020 was held in the background of a transnational backlash against gender studies (Maree, 2020), in which the equality and inclusiveness contained has positive significance for gender-vulnerable groups in Japan and the entire world. We have seen the diversified expressions, LGBTIQ+ athletes winning medals or becoming the standard-bearers of the delegation, and many examples of inclusiveness. However, LGBTIQ+ sports participation in the equal rights struggle is still long, and misunderstandings, fears, and doubts still exist. Considering the long-existing characteristics of masculinity in the Olympics and sports, making improvements needs more time and patience.
"Unity in Diversity" and "Connecting to Tomorrow" was set as two of the three core visions of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The dilemma in Olympics brought by gender diversity may not last long. We have reasons to believe that in the future, the continuous improvement of the Olympic Games would ensure the equal participation of every individual, truly fair, just, and open, and it will continue to be a valuable record of the development of human civilization.