#OneTeam

Eric Mitchell , Canada

Eric Mitchell persuaded the Canadian Olympic Committee to make sport more accepting of LGBT athletes. In 2014 the #OneTeam campaign was launched on national media to support creating LGBTQ safe spaces and stop harassment on the field of play in less than three minutes. #OneTeam ambassadors shared their personal stories in a 90 second video. The campaign, received over 17 million digital impressions on Facebook and Twitter, and 13 million traditional hits on CBC and national news. Eric also personally trained over 100 professional coaches in LGBT rights in sports and overall more than 1,000 athletes have received LGBT inclusivity training.

At the 2016 Olympics, Eric approached the Olympic Committee to act when a Rio-based journalist wrote a homophobic article which initiated the hashtag “Gays don’t deserve medals” being tweeted 80,000 times. The journalist was removed from the Games.