The first openly trans person to win Olympic gold

On 6 August 2021, the Canadian women's national football team won the Olympic final against Sweden at the International Stadium Yokohama. After 1–1 at the end of extra time, a penalty shoot-out decided the match. It was Canada's first ever Olympic football gold. In midfield stood Quinn, who that day became the first openly trans and non-binary person to win an Olympic medal, and a gold one at that.

Quinn comes from Toronto, had played for the Canadian national team since 2014 and had already won bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, at that time under their former name. In autumn 2020, Quinn announced on Instagram that they were trans and non-binary, dropped both first names and has since used only their surname. In English, Quinn uses the gender-neutral pronouns they/them.

The start of the tournament in Tokyo was already a first: Quinn was the first openly trans person ever to compete at the Olympic Games. At the time, however, public debate focused almost exclusively on the New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who a few days earlier had become the first openly trans woman to compete in an individual event and faced fierce hostility as a result. Quinn's participation remained largely uncontested, because the question of physical advantage did not arise in this case at all.

Quinn took the success soberly. Young people had written to say that they had never seen a trans person in sport before, Quinn told the broadcaster CBC. At the same time, Quinn pointed to trans girls who are excluded from sport and to trans women who face discrimination and prejudice on their way to the Olympics. "The fight is far from over" was their conclusion on the day of the gold medal.