RIO DE JANEIRO — Since before the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Outsports.com has been covering gay issues in sports. The site is filled largely with coming-out stories, news analysis and slideshows of good-looking athletes. 

里约热内卢——从2000年悉尼夏季奥运会开始之前，Outsports.com网站就开始报道体育界的同性恋话题。网站内容基本上是出柜故事、新闻分析以及长得好看的运动员的图集。

And every two years, during the Winter and Summer Olympics, its audience traffic rises to new heights — quantifiable evidence of something often generalized and stereotyped. “Gay men love the Olympics,” Cyd Zeigler, a founder of Outsports, said in an email. 

每隔两年，在冬季和夏季奥运会期间，它的读者流量都会达到新高——这是某种经常被笼统化、类型化的东西的量化证据。“男同性恋喜欢奥运会，”Outsports的一位创始人锡德•齐格勒(Cyd Zeigler)在接受邮件采访时说。

It did not take a record number of publicly out athletes competing at the Rio Games to draw the gay community’s attention. It did not take a shirtless and lubed flag-bearer from Tonga, or photographs of gymnasts on the beach, or divers taking post-plunge showers.

并不是因为参加里约奥运会公开出柜的运动员人数达到历史新高，才引起同性恋群体的注意。也不是因为上身赤裸、涂了油的汤加旗手，或者沙滩上的体操运动员的照片，或者在跳水后淋浴的运动员。

Those things only helped draw interest from audiences, both gay and straight. But gay men were already a reliable demographic, as demonstrated across the web, from Outsports to other sites targeted to gays that are now filled largely with photos and posts about the Olympics.

那些东西只能帮助吸引观众的兴趣，这既包括同性恋，也包括异性恋。但是，男同已经是一个可靠的目标用户。这一点在很多网站上都得到了体现——从Outsports到其他以同性恋为目标用户的网站。这些网站现在大多充满关于奥运会的照片和文章。

The question is why gay men love the Olympics. Theories are as varied as the gay community itself. 

问题是，为什么男同性恋喜欢奥运会。关于这一点有很多说法，就像同性恋群体本身一样复杂。

Bruce Hayes, a 1984 gold medalist in swimming who is gay, cautioned against stereotypes.

布鲁斯•海斯(Bruce Hayes)是1984年游泳项目的金牌得主。他是一名同性恋。他告诫大家不要囿于固有观念。

“Gay people like sports as much as any other group of people,” said Hayes, now the managing director of health for the New York office of Edelman, a public relations firm. “There’s this perception that we don’t. Or that if we’re watching the Olympics, it’s for a reason other than watching the sports and the athletic achievements.”

“同性恋和其他群体一样喜欢运动，”海斯说。他现在是公关公司Edelman纽约分部的健康部总经理。“有人以为我们不喜欢运动。或者认为我们看奥运会不是为了看比赛或者看运动员取得的成绩。”

But the Olympics have some unique qualities that attract gay men, several others said. Many closeted gays participated in individual sports to avoid the discomfort of team-sport culture, and the Olympics is the biggest showcase of individual sports. Hayes, too, said that being gay was a reason he gravitated toward swimming as a boy.

不过也有个别人说，奥运会具有某种吸引男同性恋的独特气质。很多没有出柜的同性恋参加个人运动项目，以避免团队运动文化给他们带来的不适，而奥运会是个人运动最大的舞台。海斯也说，身为同性恋也是他少年时被游泳吸引的一个原因。

Also, many Olympic sports possess an outsider’s sensibility that gay men can appreciate. Many sports are filled with artistry often missing from the usual weekend sports selection on television. And, for some, admittedly, the attraction is physical.

另外，很多奥运会项目拥有边缘人的感性，这一点是男同能够欣赏的。很多项目很有艺术性，这是电视上常见的周末体育赛事所没有的。不可否认，对有些人来说，它的吸引力在于体形。 

“A big part of it is the skin factor, for sure,” Zeigler said. 

“外貌是一个很重要的因素，这是肯定的，”齐格勒说。

That happens across the spectrum. People gaze at the physiques of the divers in small Speedos. They marvel at the tiny bikinis on the women of beach volleyball.

这是普遍存在的现象。人们会盯着身穿紧身小泳裤的跳水选手的体形看。也会为沙滩排球赛的女运动员穿的小比基尼惊叹。

What has changed is who is doing the ogling. More than ever, and more openly than ever, it seems to be everyone.

所不同的是谁在色眯眯地观看。似乎所有人都比以前更开放了。

“The mainstream media is finally catching up to the gays in their public admiration of athletes’ bodies, male and female,” said Jim Buzinski, the other Outsports founder. “Now everyone is doing the ‘hottest bods’ post, encroaching on what had been our turf. Plus, men are more and more open about showing off, especially on social media, and don’t care who’s looking.”

“主流媒体终于开始追随同性恋，对运动员身体表示公开钦慕了，不管是男运动员还是女运动员，”Outsports的另一位创始人吉姆•布津斯基(Jim Buzinski)说。“现在大家都在发布关于‘最火辣身材’的帖子，侵占我们曾经的地盘。另外，男人们越来越公开地炫耀身材，尤其是在社交媒体上，他们可不在乎谁在看。”

Outsports found that, at last count, 49 athletes are publicly out. That is about twice as many as at the 2012 London Games. Eleven of them, none from the United States, are male.

Outsports的最新统计发现，此次奥运会共有49名公开出柜的运动员。这个数字大约是2012年伦敦奥运会时的两倍。其中的11名男性都不是美国人。

British diver Tom Daley, a two-time medalist, is a popular gay icon, and his boyfriend is a bit of a celebrity, too. Brazil’s Rafaela Silva, who won a gold medal in judo, came out publicly two days later. A female Brazilian rugby player proposed to her girlfriend at the medal stand.

英国跳水运动员汤姆•戴利(Tom Daley)曾两次获得奖牌。他是一位很受欢迎的同性恋代表。他的男友也算是个名人。巴西的拉斐拉•席尔瓦(Rafaela Silva)在柔道比赛中获得金牌。两天后公开出柜。一位巴西女橄榄球运动员在领奖台上向女友求婚。 

“There is something cool happening with this Olympics,” Hayes said. “There are quite a few out gay athletes competing. You used to never hear about that or see that. There were gay people competing, but they weren’t out or written about. Slowly, there’s starting to be a realization that gays are interested in sports, that they’re actually good at sports, and they can excel and achieve like anyone else.”

“本届运动会正在发生很酷的事，”海斯说。“有不少出柜的同性恋运动员在比赛。这是你过去从没听过或见过的事情。过去也有同性恋运动员在比赛，但他们没有出柜或被报道。慢慢地，人们意识到同性恋也对体育感兴趣，他们其实擅长体育，他们能和其他人一样出类拔萃，取得成就。”

Add all that context — more open athletes, a culture gaining acceptance and traction in a growing number of countries — and it is suddenly difficult for many to keep their eyes off these Olympics, the ultimate sports spectacle.

把所有这些背景加起来——更多运动员公开出柜、同性恋文化在越来越多的国家得到接受和推动——很多人突然之间很难把眼睛从奥运会这项顶级体育赛事上移开。 

The shirtless, well-lubed flag-bearer from Tonga became an instant sensation and has since made the news media rounds, including at NBC’s “Today” show. (Interview with Al Roker? Oil rub from Matt Lauer? Does it get more mainstream than that?) 

上身赤裸、涂着油的汤加旗手迅速走红，登上各大新闻媒体，包括NBC频道的《今日秀》(Today)（接受阿尔•罗克[Al Roker]的采访？马特•劳尔[Matt Lauer]为他抹的油？还有比这更主流的吗？）。

Members of the U.S. men’s gymnastics team suggested in The Wall Street Journal that they want to be objectified, perhaps by competing shirtless.

美国男子体操队成员在接受《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)采访时表示，他们希望被物化——也许是通过比赛不穿上衣。

Social media lapped up the “accidental censorship” of divers taking showers between dives as television graphics covered their tiny suits, giving the illusion of full-fledged nudity.

社交媒体欣然接受对跳水选手在跳水之间冲淋浴时的“意外审查”——图形遮住了他们的小泳裤，给人一种全身赤裸的错觉。

“For some people, the Olympics is the greatest soft porn ever,” said Eric Marcus, an expert on gay history and co-writer of the autobiography of the Olympic champion diver Greg Louganis, who came out after retiring. “What’s changed is that the mainstream press is interested in these things, that gay people are comfortable talking about them, that it is now OK to objectify the bodies of men in a way that I don’t think that most news outlets would be comfortable objectifying women.”

“对有些人来说，奥运会是最大的软色情，”同性恋史学家埃里克•马库斯(Eric Marcus)说。他是奥运会跳水冠军格雷格•洛加尼斯(Greg Louganis)自传的合著者。洛加尼斯在退役后出柜。“现在的变化是，主流媒体也对这些事情有了兴趣，同性恋人士愿意谈论它们，现在可以物化男性的身体，不过我觉得大部分新闻门户还不敢物化女性。”

In a twist from the past, the one news media taboo seems to be ogling women, though that does not stop it from happening.

在此重大转变之际，新闻媒体似乎还保持着一项禁忌，那就是色眯眯地注视女性，虽然这并未阻止这样的事情发生。

Even most lesbian sites do not have the same type of photocentric posts that those catering to gay men have. A beautiful woman carrying the Tongan flag is probably not booked on the “Today” show, and certainly not getting rubbed by the hosts.

就连绝大多数的女同网站也没有像迎合男同的网站那样发布以照片为主的帖子。一位举着汤加国旗的美丽女子很可能上不了《今日秀》，而且主持人肯定不会给她身上抹油。

“The objectification of women was tied to the subordination of women,” Marcus said. “There’s a different dynamic involved.”

“女性的物化是与女性的从属性联系在一起的，”马库斯说。“那是另外一个问题。”

That doesn’t keep some in the Olympic audience from seeing obvious objectification in some female uniforms, especially the bikinis worn by most beach volleyball players. Such revealing amounts of skin are not required; many women cover up on cool days and nights. One athlete from Egypt wore leggings, long sleeves and a head-covering hijab. 

那也没有阻止有些奥运观众从某些女性运动服上看出明显的物化，尤其是大部分沙滩排球运动员穿的比基尼。这种程度的暴露是不必要的，很多女运动员在凉爽的比赛日里穿更多衣服。有一位来自埃及的女运动员穿上打底裤和长袖，用头巾把头遮住。