Team SF Aims High at Eighth Gay Games

By Ted Andersen

The Olympics of the LGBT community have propelled San Francisco gay and lesbian athletics into action this summer.

The quadrennial Gay Games, the world’s largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes, will take place from July 31 to August 7 in Cologne, Germany. The competition welcomes participants of all ages and skill levels, with no qualifying standards to compete, and brings together people from all over the world, some from countries where homosexuality remains illegal and hidden.

Originally called the Gay Olympics, it was conceived in San Francisco in 1982 by Tom Waddell, an Olympic decathlete who competed in the 1968 Mexico City Olympic games. However, a lawsuit filed by the International Olympic Committee before the inaugural Gay Olympics forced out the word “Olympics.” Since then the Gay Games have been held every four years in San Francisco, Vancouver, New York, Amsterdam, Sydney and Chicago, respectively.

Team SF represents a hodgepodge of Bay Area teams and serves as the organizing committee to get people to the Gay Games. All sports in the Bay Area are independent, and athletes pay their own travel and lodging expenses. Team SF President Tyler Cole, who supports the team by granting scholarships, issuing uniforms and maintaining the website, said at least 135 athletes officially plan to take part in opening ceremonies by representing San Francisco in uniform.
“One of the goals of Team SF is just to get people participating in sports,“ said Cole, who expects 10,000-11,000 athletes worldwide to attend this year.

After successfully hosting Gay Games II in 1986, San Francisco’s swimmers decided to form the Tsunami Swim Team, which has been a successful part of Team SF for years. Tsunami Head Coach Rob Volpe said that swimmers this year have their sights on improving their personal best times and have been on an intensive training cycle for the past five months gearing up for competition.

“We are talking about master-level athletes, some of which are former world-class athletes, some of which are casual or recreational, and giving them the chance to get together globally in a completely safe and inclusive environment,” Volpe said. “I’ve personally found it life changing.”
Volpe said that there are gay athletes in the Olympics, such as openly gay 2008 Olympic diving gold-medalist Matthew Mitcham from Australia. However, he said many athletes still hide their sexuality like American diving great Greg Louganis, who came out publicly at the 1994 Gay Games in New York City.

“Hopefully more athletes will feel comfortable and have the courage when they’re competing in their event to have that same conviction in being true and honest about themselves,” he said.
Team Tsunami member Kristian Nergaard, a 35-year San Francisco resident who has received a medal in every Gay Games for the past 20 years, claims to be the first gay swimmer to swim from Alcatraz to shore. At 62 years old, he says that the competition is a good outlet for him as it allows him to compete with his age group.

“I will probably compete until I die,” he said. “I think it’s a fantastic way to meet new friends, see new places, to learn new sides to cultures and languages. I think it is immensely supportive.”
Although the games garner very little media coverage in the United States, he said, the international reputation of Team SF stretches far.

“What is interesting is that by established rule, at the opening ceremonies, at each Gay Games, Team San Francisco marches in first because we started the whole thing, and that is being respected by the Federation of Gay Games,” Nergaard said. “Usually there are 20,000 or 30,000 people in the stands, and when they announce Team SF it just explodes. It just chokes me up, the emotion and the respect.”

Cleveland, Ohio, has been awarded the next games in 2014, which could boost media attention in the U.S.

“I think people in the heartland will be shocked to find out that 10,000 to 12,000 homosexual athletes will land in their backyards with an equal amount of supporters,” Nergaard said. “I think it could be quite interesting.”

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