This is the fifteenth in a series of articles profiling known out and proud Olympic athletes who are openly LGBT. The New Civil Rights Movement will publish one article each day as we move into the London 2012 Olympics.
London 2012 Olympiad Judith Arndt, 36, has been cycling since she was four years old. Her parents both cycled and they encouraged young Judith to join them. Born in the German town of Konigs Wusterhausen, in 1976, this Olympic veteran has been at every Summer Olympics Games since 1996. She and her partner, Petra Rößner, are also both Ambassadors for the Gay Games. Their website reports that Arndt’s international cycling career began in 1995 when she was just 19.
READ: Breaking – First Out LGBT Olympic Athlete To Medal Wins Silver
“She became the German National Track Champion in the individual pursuit in 1996 and won bronze in the 3000 m. pursuit at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games,” Arndt’s bio at the the Gay Games website states. “She competed in both track and road races during the next several years, consistently winning German titles and competing at the world championships and Sydney Olympic Games. Judith’s transition to a champion road racer was complete in 2004 — she won the silver medal in the women’s road race at the Athens Olympic Games and capped an outstanding season by winning the gold medal in the Elite women’s road race and the time trial silver medal at the UCI world championships; her gold was the first win by a German woman in the world championship road race in more than 20 years . She continued her professional career with Nürnberger Versicherung through 2005, when she had another fine finish in the 2005 UCI world championship Elite women’s time trial, finishing in fourth and as the top German.“
Arndt took 41st in Road Race and 6th in Individual Time Trial in the 2008 Beijing Games. She placed 1st in Road Race in this year’s world cup in Belgium and  has a history of medaling in races around the world.
Since December, 2011, Arndt has ridden for GreenEDGE-AIS. The club is a collaboration between GreenEDGE, the Australia Institute of Sport (AIS) and Cycling Australia and is Australia’s first top level UCI World Tour sanctioned women’s road squad.
Judith Arndt came to London seeking a gold medal in the individual time trial, but was also chosen along with Trixi Worrack, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (the other out German member of the team) and Charlotte Becker to represent Germany in the Women’s Road Race. Arndt  placed 37th, Worrack 33rd and Teutenberg 4th; Becker placed ouside the ranked 40 in that race. But Arndt will bring home the silver in the individual time trial; she placed 2nd in the August 1st competition.
Arndt and Petra Rößner, who won the gold medal in 3 km pursuit track cycling at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and retired in 2004, lived in Leipzig since 1996. They reportedly are no longer together.
In 2012 after The World Cup, Judith Arndt will relocate to Australia and live in Melbourne with Anna Wilson, a distinguished Australian cyclist.
Follow our series: “2012 Olympics: Who Are The LGBT Athletes?†as we profile all the out LGBT athletes playing in the London 2012 Olympic games.
Image by @cycletard via Twitter
This article has been updated to reflect Arndt’s relationship change.
Stuart Wilber. Photo by Mathew Ryan Williams
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Stuart Wilber believes that living life openly as a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender or Allied person is the most powerful kind of activism. Shortly after meeting his partner in Chicago in 1977, he opened a gallery named In a Plain Brown Wrapper, where he exhibited cutting edge work by leading artists; art that dealt with sexuality and gender identification. In the late 1980’s when they moved to San Clemente, CA in Orange County, life as an openly gay couple became a political act. They moved to Seattle 16 years ago and married in Canada a few weeks after British Columbia legalized same-sex marriage. Although legally married in some countries, they are only considered domestic partners in Washington State. Equality continues to elude him.