Pyeongchang’s Olympics have seen athletes more open and public about their sexuality than ever before, with Canada’s Eric Radford becoming the first out Olympian to claim gold at a Winter Games.

Radford clinched gold in the team figure skating event on Monday, alongside his skating partner Meagan Duhamel. He posed afterwards for a photo with another out medalist from the event - Adam Rippon of the USA who took bronze. Radford came out in December 2014, after winning silver in the previous Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy had set the tone for an open LGBT Olympics on the opening day, with a Twitter post picturing him with Rippon‏, stating: “We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it.”

Before the Games, Kenworthy was a vocal critic of the decision to send vice -president Mike Pence as head of the US delegation. He said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show: “It just seems such a strange choice for me. To have someone leading the delegation that’s directly attacked the LGBT community. It just seems like a bad fit.”

Rippon has also clashed with Pence. Questioned about the choice of Pence in January, Rippon said: “You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? I’m not buying it.”

Pence’s press secretary issued a denial of that claim, saying Rippon’s remarks had “no basis in fact”, but Rippon continued the feud, citing text from Pence’s 2000 campaign website, where he supported funding “institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behaviour”. Rippon’s team claim to have turned down approaches from Pence’s team for the two to meet – although Pence’s team have disputed this.

v proud of this guy pic.twitter.com/rlTk6is3Cy — Gus Kenworthy (@guskenworthy) February 12, 2018

Rippon is also notable for a riposte he gave to being asked what it is like to be a gay athlete – “It’s exactly like being a straight athlete. Lots of hard work but usually done with better eye brows.”

The rise in diversity in the US Winter Olympics squad has not been universally welcomed. Earlier this week Fox News published, then deleted, a column by executive editor John Moody, who had written that the US Olympic Committee was trying to change the Olympic motto from “Faster, Higher, Stronger” to “Darker, Gayer, Different”.

The acceptance of out gay athletes competing in Pyeongchang makes a sharp contrast to the official approach to LGBT rights at the previous Winter Olympics. In 2014, Sochi’s mayor Anatoly Pakhomov dismissed concerns about Russia’s track record on equality by asserting that there were no gay people in the city. Prior to those Games, more than 50 current and former Olympians backed the Principle 6 campaign against Russia’s anti-gay laws, named after the clause in the Olympic charter that guarantees non-discrimination.

Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff, who is competing in Pyeongchang, came out in 2013 before attending the Sochi Games, and used that to highlight Russian intolerance. “I want to be proud of who I am and be proud of all the work I’ve done to get into the Olympics and not have to deal with this law,” she told Australian television at the time.

Belle Brockhoff in 2013 while attempting to qualify for Sochi. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Netherlands speed-skater Ireen Wüst is one of the most successful LGBT athletes in Olympic history, having picked up 10 medals since making her debut in the 2006 Turin Games. She won her fifth gold on Monday. Wüst is bisexual, and in a relationship with long-distance skater Letitia de Jong, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for Pyeongchang herself.

However, like many LGBT athletes throughout Olympic history, Wüst has wrestled with the impact on her career of coming out. “Will you then be known as Ireen the speedskater, or Ireen who has a girlfriend? That was a struggle” she once said. Before Sochi she lamented the impact that LGBT athletes could have by protesting: “I’m just there to skate very fast. I can’t do anything about it, and I won’t. As if a well-known Dutch person can change the situation in Russia!”

Ireen Wüst of the Netherlands receiving her gold medal in Pyeongchang. Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

Radford, though, is sure that part of being an out LGBT athlete is being a beneficial role model to the community. Speaking to Canada’s Sportsnet, he told of his experience growing up. “I was the only male figure skater in a hockey town, which led to me being bullied quite a bit.” He believes his Olympic success can make life easier for those in the next generation.

“I put myself in the position of a young kid, who might be afraid to follow their own dream. Or maybe they just want to get out of their own small town and do something in the world. If that young kid was able to see someone on TV — someone similar to myself, who was openly gay and winning medals — then maybe that would give them the confidence to feel it was truly possible for them.”