Team LGBTQ gets another medal — and athlete.
Olympic archer Lucilla Boari came out as a member of the LGBTQ community during a press conference with Italian media on Friday, after watching a video message sent by her girlfriend.
Her bronze medal is one of 13 medals won by an openly LGBTQ athlete in the Olympics, according to Outsports.
Boari, 24, became the first woman from Italy to win an Olympic archery medal at the Olympics, after she defeated Mackenzie Brown, of the United States, 7-1.
After her historic performance, she took part in a video conference with a number of Italian outlets.
During the interview, which was live-streamed on Facebook, Boari was surprised with a video message from Saane de Laat, a Dutch archer who’s not in Tokyo.
“Congratulations,” de Laat said, as a visibly touched Boari smiled at the camera.
“It’s super amazing and I’m super proud of you. I can’t wait until you’re here so I can give you the biggest hug there is. I love you.”
A few moments after the video, Boari said, “This is Sanne, my girlfriend.”
Earlier this week, another athlete came out during an interview.
Olympic rower Katarzyna Zillmann, of Poland, thanked her girlfriend after winning a silver medal in the quadruple sculls at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday.
Her coming out message came during an emotional interview for state-controlled TVP television.
According to Outsports, there are 178 publicly out Olympians in Tokyo, easily breaking the previous record of LGBTQ representation, when 56 out-and-proud athletes participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
As of Saturday morning, Team LGBTQ currently has five gold, four silver and four bronze medals. It it were a country, it would rank eighth overall, just ahead of France.
