1st Same-Sex Olympic Couple Wins Gold

Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh were already the first same-sex married couple to compete in the Olympics, Advocate reports. On Friday, they added a gold medal to that historic first. "To win a gold medal is a dream come true—to win it standing next to my wife is really special," Helen tells BBC. Kate and Helen are both members of Great Britain's women's field hockey team, which defeated the Netherlands in the gold medal match Friday in Rio. The win made Kate and Helen the first British married couple—of any sexuality—to win gold medals at the same Olympics in nearly 100 years, Quartz reports.

Kate and Helen have been competing together at the Olympics since 2000. They started dating after the 2008 games and got married when the UK legalized same-sex marriage in 2013. "The best thing is the reaction we've had from the public in that we've helped people feel more confident in themselves," Kate, who announced her retirement after Friday's match, tells the BBC. "People feel it's OK to come out as bisexual or gay or lesbian—that's been the best thing for me." There are already more openly LGBT athletes competing in Rio than in any previous Olympics, and USA Today believes married same-sex couples competing together is only going to become more common. (More Rio Olympics stories.)