All I needed to know about my feelings on Gay Games VIII came on the last day. Most of the athletes had already left, and I headed to the soccer and basketball finals. Neumarkt was empty. The train was empty. Melancholy swept over me. The thought of this incredible event ending was several days before a far-off consideration, something I didn’t have to think about; Now it was staring me in the face. A couple tears drained into my eyes as I took that last train ride to the final events of the Games.
The Gay Games offers something you cannot find at an HRC dinner or a GLAAD Awards show. Those events have wonderful aspects of their own, but the Gay Games is something special that a dinner and drinks simply can’t provide. There is a camaraderie at the Gay Games that is hard to find in other corners of the gay community. Walking through Rudolfplatz or down Pfielstrasse, the standoffish attitudes that dominate so many gay neighborhoods and events are a world away. Smiles replace blank stares.
I hope the organizers of the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland took copious notes at these Games, because the organizers of Cologne showed them how amazing a Gay Games can be when it is well-planned and well-executed.
Some people made my trip to the Gay Games particularly wonderful, so I want to thank my partners Dan Pinar and Jim Buzinski – in love and work, they’re the best. Dave Kopay for making me laugh a ton. Loïc L. for working through our language barrier and for putting up with this “stupid American” (and, all you guys in Paris – Loic is your city’s greatest catch!).
Now, onto the grades…
Opening Ceremony: B-
I only stayed for the first half, so keep that in mind. But the fact that the first hour of the ceremony couldn’t hold my attention says a lot. Reports about the second half, including a performance by Taylor Dayne and some great fireworks, were very positive. And the athletes’ energy enthusiasm was contagious. But speech after speech after speech in the first hour killed a lot of that energy. I also heard the athletes couldn’t hear much of what was going on because of bad acoustics; One athlete said he had no idea that John Amaechi or Dave Kopay were there because he couldn’t hear their names announced. That’s unfortunate. The fact that it was only one hour of speeches (instead of three) saved the event from the D grade I gave Chicago for their opening ceremony. Lesson to Cleveland: Keep it to 20 minutes of speeches and intersperse them throughout!
Geographic Representation: A
The thing I was most impressed with was the strong presence of athletes from Latin America. Argentina, Mexico and Brazil were all noticeably present. There was a smattering of athletes from Africa and many from Asia as well. There’s still improvement to be had, but it was really strong.
My Adopted Sport, Track & Field: A+
Wow. In Sydney, the track was excellent; In Chicago, it was nearly a disaster. Montreal was pretty good. But the energy from the crowd and athletes at the venue in Cologne was extraordinary; It was the best energy I saw in Cologne. A big part of that was the two fantastic announcers who for five days kept the crowd informed and upbeat. Ruckus applause rang from the stands as hundreds (if not over 1,000) of people cheered each and every competitor in each race. I can’t think of a way that Track & Field could have been more well-run or a better experience, and many athletes resounded that as the week went on.
On the flip side, Basketball was the worst and would get a D. The location was terrible, the venue was uninspired, and the officiating was atrocious. In addition, the self-chosen divisions were all wrong.
Venues: A-
Some of the sports were in fantastic venues, like Track & Field, Tennis and the Triathlon. Others like Basketball left a lot to be desired. It also would have been great if all of the events could have been within a half-hour trip from the city center; the train ride and walk to Triathlon was almost an hour. What puts this in the “A” level was the incredible center of sports that RheinEnergie Stadion became. Track, Water polo, Field Hockey, Softball, Swimming, Handball, Martial Arts…about half of the sports took place in the same complex, and we have never seen anything like it at a Gay Games.
City Presence: A+
The event succeeded in this area on many levels. First, Gay Games signs were everywhere. I even saw them five hours away in Berlin. They were in train stations, on the street, in businesses. Restaurants, stores and hotels displayed rainbow flags. Athletes wearing red-and-white credentials were everywhere. And the event took over the center of Old Town, with fantastic fairs at Neumarkt and Rudolfplatz.
Media Exposure: B+
Outsports was the only American-based media sponsor of the Games, and as far as I could tell we were the only ones posting daily updates. The local Cologne press offered daily updates in the sports pages, and dozens of media outlets (if not hundreds) were recording and reporting on the events. Still, the lack of American press coverage was disappointing.
Results Reporting: A
The Gay Games site and other organizing sports (e.g., the Gay & Lesbian Tennis Association) did a great job of updating their sites with the latest results and schedules. There were a couple sports where it was lacking (e.g., wrestling), but overall a strong effort.
Beyond the Sports: A+
Rudolfplatz, Neumarkt and the Bermuda Triangle created a fantastic center away from the sports that drew thousands of participants every day and night. Having a central area like this where the athletes choose to spend their time away from their sports enhances the event a hundredfold, and Cologne had this piece of it mapped out perfectly.
Other: A
The rain that fell several afternoons put a literal damper on some events. The organization was stereotypically German: Efficient, exacting and well-run. The energy surrounding the event was extraordinary. Athletes were friendly and volunteers were friendly and informed.
Overall: A
I have been to the Gay Games in Sydney and Chicago and the Outgames in Montreal. Gay Games VIII in Cologne surpassed them all. It’s too bad that under 9,500 athletes participated, because those who chose to say home missed out in a huge way. If you’re reading this and didn’t go to Cologne, book your tickets to Cleveland now.
Jim’s view: Yep, it gets an ‘A’
It’s not always the case that Cyd and I are in agreement on these events, but Gay Games VIII in Cologne get an “A” grade. There was not a whole lot to quibble about.
This was the first truly international gay multi-sport event since the Sydney Gay Games in 2002. In 2006, the Chicago Gay Games was a largely American affair as Europeans chose the competing Outgames in Montreal. It was terrific to see everyone come together again.
Cologne was an ideal city to host the event — cosmopolitan but not overwhelming, with an excellent public transit system and public hubs (Rudolfplatz and Neumarkt) that served as meeting areas for athletes, fans and locals alike. There has been nothing like it since Vancouver 1990 turned the B.C. stadium into an athletes’ village. In Cologne, there were more options than just the bar scene and it created a friendly, accessible vibe, where it was easy to mingle and meet new people. It’s a model all future Gay Games must emulate.
The sports venue were, with few exceptions (as Cyd alluded to), first-rate and using the sports university near Rheinenergie Stadium to hold about half the events was genius. It was incredibly easy to go from event to event out there and this also gave athletes time to catch other sports during breaks; the result was much more mingling of jocks than at past Games. On one day, I was able to catch swimming, diving, water polo, martial arts, powerlifting, handball, bodybuilding, track and field and soccer.
One sign that these were successful Games was the very low level of bitching. People love to complain and at past Gay Games I got an earful. In Cologne, though, I heard very little in the way of complaints. The basketball players did not like their setup and there were complaints about lack of ice and slow medical response at track and field, but overall people were content with the way things ran.
The only shame is that more people did not attend. Cologne, unfortunately, suffered from a perception that it wasn’t Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam and I know people who decided not to attend because of that. It was their loss. I guarantee that had they known how cool the scene was to be, they would have eagerly booked their tickets.
Hats off to the Cologne organizers and the myriad volunteers (they stood out in their orange shirts). And kudos to the Federation of Gay Games. I’ve had my differences with them in the past, but in choosing Cologne, the FGG hit a grand slam.
We would love to hear from others who attended, whether as an athlete or fan, and let us know your experiences.
on Aug 9th, 2010 at 2:33 PM
Nice report, Cyd. I thought Cologne was fantastic as well and set a new standard for all similar events in the future.
To be fair to the other American-based media sponsors, some of whom have been sponsors for 2 years, this statement – “Outsports was the only American-based media sponsor of the Games” isn’t true. Other American-based media sponsors included: Bi Social Network, Desert Daily News (Palm Springs), Windy City Times (Chicago), Compete Magazine, Liberty Press (Wichita, KS), Talk Magazine (Palm Springs), Seattle Gay News, Q Salt Lake, and Curve Magazine and some nice donated ads, outside of formal sponsorship agreement, from Splash Magazine (Florida), Options (Rhode Island), and MyScene (Minneapolis).
I didn’t see daily blogs from any of these like I did from Outsports, but there are some nice stories that appeared last week, and quite a few non-sponsors did some nice daily reports as well. The reports from Outsports and many other publications really helped bring this Gay Games to life for many people.
The full sponsor list of Cologne is here: http://www.games-cologne.de/en/gay-games/sponsors. All of these folks, including Outsports, deserve our support for their donated resources over the past 2 years.
on Aug 9th, 2010 at 5:30 PM
Nice report and summary! Cologne was fabulous.
Your coverage is interesting though. I believe more than 50% of your posted pics were of shirtless man in a specific age group. Not that I do not appreciate that, but it really serves the gay stereotypes. Frontrunners New York had the biggest team at Track & Field, but your lens missed the team, I guess we all kept our shirts on.
More than 1,000 athletes competed in the road races (incl. marathon), no word about it nor a picture (even though there were enough shirtless runners).
Gay sports is not just only young, shirtless gay men with a six-pack and a killer body!
on Aug 9th, 2010 at 5:35 PM
Kevin, I looked at the back of all the registration badges and we were the only ones listed. Thanks for clarifying – I just didn’t know of any others because they weren’t listed. But given your list I’m upgrading it to a B+ as I just wasn’t aware of that info.
Bernd, we have hundreds more photos that we’ll be rolling out in the next two weeks, so stay tuned. We had to pick and choose which photos we highlighted early on – and as you can see the shirtless pics get more page views. But we have lots more coming of lots more athletes!
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 7:17 AM
Excellent summing up, although I have to disagree with some of your ratings – here’s why.
Opening Ceremony: C
It was risky to use such a big stadium and to try to sell tickets at such high prices – shown by the last-minute half price sale. Marching in, our first impression was “it’s nearly empty – how embarrassing”. The parade of athletes was great, and the Foreign Minister’s speech was good, but of course he was the first to speak. To all the others – remember KISS – Keep it Short and Simple! We know you want to thank everyone but this is not the Oscars. Note to Cleveland: one organizer, the mayor and one VIP. Max two minutes each. That’s enough.
And get a decent sound system. And sign-language interpreters.
Lesson to be learned: we’re not the Olympics and the locals aren’t bothered about us so much that they’ll pay to come. An Opening Ceremony needs to be accessible and free (think Copenhagen Outgames: much more intimate and fun at City Hall Square).
And why did the party after the ceremony cost €36? In Copenhagen it was free!
Geographic Representation:
I’m not giving a grade, but just want to point out that the host nation Germany has a population of 80 million and sent, what was it, 900 athletes? Outgames Copenhagen host Denmark has a population of 5 million and had several hundred participating in 2009. Interesting ratios.
Triathlon: B
Difficult to get to. Roads closed meant long walks for spectators, some were not even signposted. Too many non-participants allowed into the transition zone. Last minute extra fees for timing chips – why? Every other triathlon I and my team have been in has never asked for that on the day – it’s included in the registration fee. Remember we paid over €200 to register and then you want extra on the day – we want our money back!
I heard the same happened for Cycling. This is not on.
That said, it was a fun day, the course was good and it was definitely an experience to ride a bike on a German Autobahn!
Water Polo and Synchro Swimming: B-
Good pools and good location but nowhere near enough room for spectators. No food on site.
Swimming: B
An outdoor pool is risky – some days were great weather, others decidedly chilly and wet. There was barely anywhere to shelter, and hardly any decent food on offer. Announcers often impossible to hear. Water apparently too cold. Note to Cleveland: healthy food, please!
In terms of organization, why were swimmers sent a message just days before the start asking for proof of licenses from their respective national governing bodies? Isn’t the principle that anyone is welcome? The email even said “no-club” swimmers would not be allowed to compete.
But I heard of no one being asked for this proof at checkin, and start lists even showed some people as being from “no club”.
Note to Cleveland: please don’t confuse people like this!
Communications – B
Far too much information was in bad English. In some cases it didn’t even match the German (do I have to be there “by 4pm” or “from 4pm”?). The triathlon instructions handed out at the venue were incomprehensibly bad, and I had to help a French competitor understand them.
And the map of the course was only in German. As were signs on the run part of the route – is it really difficult to write “Water” instead of “Streckenverpflegung”? They were Gay Games signs, not something re-used from another event, so I can’t see why this couldn’t be done in English.
City Presence: A-
I agree that there was a massive visible presence but the main Village at Neumarkt was virtually fenced off, discouraging locals from taking a look. Rudolfplatz Village seemed to have very little happening most of the time.
As regards the entertainment on offer, here’s a note to Cleveland: check your demographics. Not everyone’s 23 and likes loud techno or disco music all the time. What is the biggest age group at the Games – my guess is 30-40. And the “Bjorn Again” Abba show was amazingly popular – more like that please!
There were lots of volunteers visible – in fact I heard from some that they had been told they weren’t needed. What a shame – but then better than not to have enough people.
Media Exposure: C+
Disappointing. The local mainstream newspapers were there but national German papers seem to have ignored us. Check Google News and there’s very little to find.
Overall: B
I had a fantastic time but felt a little cheated by last-minute extra fees, over-priced parties and entrance fees to watch events. Copenhagen managed to involve the locals much more, with smaller stages spread out around the city and a route between them which included the Cathedral decked out in rainbow colours. Cologne seemed to fence us in, and the locals out.
But well done and thank you Cologne – let’s see an honest report in due course which Cleveland / Antwerp et al can all use, just like the one Copenhagen published.
And I hope that like Copenhagen, you made a profit – especially after all those extra fees!
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Thanks Cyd…
I concur with almost all of your ratings such that I will not quibble with +/-’s. My only complaint is that we could have easily had >12k registration, and it could have been so much more with no impact on budget.
My one caveat to the future Hosts is to LISTEN CAREFULLY to the FGG, and stop this ridiculous Host Hubris of the ‘Not-Invented-Here’ syndrome. The GayGames is not an opportunity to enhance your personal post GG’s resume. It is a labor of love.
Promotion of each athletic event needs the inclusion of the LGBT Sanctioning Body ASAP to create the buzz to drive registration. We learned this lesson very well in Chicago, but it was ignored until too late in this cycle. Almost all of the serious sports issues were resolved far too late in the cycle to the FGG’s satisfaction to reasonably effect the higher registrations we could have had. When it is not budget, but just perception of control, then it is just stupid reason to fight about it. The FGG has the expertise, experience, and resources to KNOW BETTER. E.g… if you knew what we went through with Track & Field, it makes my case EXACTLY. It is the GayGames that has established the tradition and the RedBook RuleSets since 1994 for the Host to follow, and this must be more rigorously enforced by the FGG earlier.
FYI, at 62, I achieved my GayGames personal best with a 3-2 record in wrestling 90kg and a Senior Division Gold. I was also elected back to the FGG Board as Officer of Technology, a position I held from 1999 to 2007. You can expect that I will be very active in the next cycle on all the issues I hold dear (probably more active than some would like!).
BTW, the FGG passed overwhelming the Motion to recommend we STOP Across the board Random Drug testing! Sorry WADA, no more $$ for you until you come up with an HIV Therapeutic Use Exemption. After all, we are the GayGames.
Thank you Koeln for proving that the GayGames model is still the best for LGBT athletes.
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 11:53 AM
Interesting that Paul has decided to make this a “Copenhagen was better than Cologne” thread. Though this kind of stuff has gotten a bit boring, there always seems to be one in every crowd. LOL.
Just a couple of comments on his comments.
Opening Ceremony – agreed that a large stadium is tough to sell. Soldier in Chicago had 35K people in it with athletes and still lots of empty space. However, I was not embarassed to walk into that stadium and kind of shocked that you felt that way, Paul.
Opening Party – I didn’t go and though I heard it was a lot of fun, I am glad my registration fees weren’t used to subsidize the parties. It was outsourced, which mean people who wanted to go paid for it. Perfect.
Geography – Germany had 2900 participants. It was the City of Cologne that had 900. Incidentally, Cyd’s comment was about geographic representation, not “support by the host country.” And who said that jingoist “my country is better than yours” stuff was specific to Americans LOL.
I completely and wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that the villages and entertainment were walled off, and disagree with the notion that instead of creating central gathering places there should be “smaller stages spread out around the city.” I loved how Cologne created 3 distinct spaces for participants and locals to interact. There was enough critical mass to make things a lot of fun and yet we didn’t have to traipse all around to find things. If another style worked in Copenhagen, that’s awesome also. There isn’t one way to make this work and I thought Cologne’s choice was absolutely fantastic. (Oh, and when I was at the villages, I didn’t hear entertainment focused exclusively on 23-year-olds either. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of videos featuring a lot of other entertainment.)
I was involved in Chicago. I didn’t spend my time in Cologne thinking “wow, we did it this way and that was better (or worse).” Instead I just had a great time and appreciated the differences and similarities when I noticed them. It’s unfortunate that the Copenhagen representative posting here had to do this to Cologne. Mostly it’s bad for you, Paul – instead of just enjoying your time in Cologne you seem to have spent a great deal of it criticizing them. I hope you managed to eke out a few fun moments for yourself among the negativity.
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 3:30 PM
Paul..
Your account of the Copenhagen opening ceremonies did not match mine.
Thankfully the GayGames have a totally different perspective on the Image of the GayGames, the featuring of the march of athletes, an experience that cannot be explained until you do it. I have now seen 3 Olympics Opening Ceremonies (actually live in Sydney 2000), all 8 of the GG’s Opening Ceremonies, and Copenhagen’s, so I have a credible ‘perspective’.
I am sorry, but as an athlete, what I saw in Copenhagen’ psuedo opening ceremonies was embarassing. Not that it was small and cheap (I am all for scaling down expenses and making things more accessible), but that I thought I was watching Ru Paul’s Drag runway show until I saw the Malmo swimmers. Were a lot of these the registrants I saw just for the Conference maybe? Can you post a link for others to go judge for themselves?
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 3:53 PM
Congrats to Gene for his performance!! It is hard to herd/organize cats and simultaneously focus on your own performance! I envy everyone who got to go!! I noticed a favorable reference to university venues, which I have long pushed as an ideal place to run a Games
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 6:14 PM
Dang, I was hoping to hear about some awesome European orgies and group sex parties
Some hot hook ups? Maybe the younger guys?
Lots of boinking goes on at the “straight” olympics. Wishful thinking on my part I guess.
on Aug 10th, 2010 at 6:50 PM
Hello Cyd,
thank you for taking time to travel to Cologne and represent the Gay Games in the media.
The basketball venue at Chorweiler was a second selection after the first selection venue required too many reconstruction points to present the venue for an international tournament. The focus of many government sport groups in Germany follow the passion of the society to follow fussball or soccer. The basketball sport halls receive far less budget considerations to build grand basketball halls compared to the US. The cost to build large sport halls on restricted land development requires the halls to be close in to the basketball court. The number of basketball fields in Cologne did not differ with the number of fields in Chicago, Sydney, Amsterdam, or New York.
Our brief conversation together during the gold medal men division A game, to clarify a point with the award of foul shots during the multiple technical fouls given in the game, gives me pause to reconsider your “D” grade of the basketball venue at the Mungersdorf, which is a different field compared to the Chorweiler venue. Your written comments about the “atrocious” officiating of the basketball games compared to the mistake you made about the technical foul rules, and the subsequent apology you offered me during the final game indicates the “atrocious” rating of officials is short of understanding the FIBA rules that govern international basketball tournaments. The officials each worked between 15 and 22 games during the week of the tournament.
Please provide a group of basketball officials that can provide an equal coverage of over 160 games, at a low cost to come within “0″ Euro budget constraints, and be consistent across all games. The cost of each athlete to play in basketball in the Gay Games would have to increase by a factor of 2 or 3 times to provide the upper division officials used in the professional FIBA games.
The selection of the divisions offered to the athletes and teams in the basketball tournament were based on part with previous Gay Games requests for more medal events for the athletes to compete. We have no pre-qualification round of games to place teams into competitive brackets. We use the information of all local, national, and international gay and lesbian basketball tournaments to place the teams that do register for the gay games. Of the 36 teams that registered and participated in the basketball tournament, 15 teams received medals.
Do you know of any other basketball tournament outside of the gay and lesbian sports organizations that offer a diverse opportunity to the athletes to achieve their personal best on the same scope of the tournament?
The basketball tournament at Gay Games VIII was a triumph of all the teams that came prepared to play at their best performance. The “basketball crew” had to conduct operations under very difficult circumstances, like buying basketballs for the tournament with donated funds, and the officials pushing their performance beyond expectations found in similar tournaments.
I hope that your frequent and positive reports of the gay and lesbian sport world will allow the sports to continue to offer and improving the competitions more often than the quadrennial Gay Games tournaments.
Thank you,
Carl Schultz
Basketball Tournament Organization
Gay Games VIII Cologne
on Aug 11th, 2010 at 12:17 AM
Carl, my apology to you was heartfelt and real. I should not have expressed my opinion the way I did behind the scorers table – totally unprofessional and inappropriate. I wasn’t questioning the application of the rule – and I appreciated your insight into it!
I watched three full games at basketball, and I talked to about two dozen players. I felt the games were poorly officiated in that there was no consistency and that bad calls were being made. The players I spoke to agreed almost unanimously. With that being said, I TOTALLY understand that budget and scheduling constraints don’t permit you as an organizer to get the best money can buy. I TOTALLY get that and understand that. I am just reacting to what I saw, and what I saw were calls and non-calls that were headscratchers.
But yes, everyone I spoke to also loved the event and I don’t think the officiating decided who won medals. We at Outsports have always tried to keep a critical eye on gay sports instead of just being cheerleaders (which we are sometimes, too). You seem like a really smart, professional guy and I was impressed with how you handled our exchange in Cologne. Anyhow, this is long-winded and no one else cares but I do appreciate what you put together!!!!
on Aug 11th, 2010 at 6:13 AM
Thank you Carl…!!!!
As a past FGG Sports Officer, thank you very much for your analysis….. I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU, just like I also agree with Cyd. I hope you get to put it into an FGG BlueBook report. I found it a very compelling on many levels, and if you do not write the BlueBook report on BasketBall, I will make sure it gets into the final Sports Committee reports somehow, because I serve on that committee.
The purpose of these blogs is to shake out the problems now while they are fresh in our minds to set the perception. It does us no good to just be ignoring the flaws for the sake of good PR. We should be CELEBRATING the fact that so many of us CARE enough to volunteer for the improvement of GayGames sports. We should never take criticisms or heated debate personally. IMHO, it is a signal of the mutual respect we all have for one another that we can be honest with each other PUBLICLY in hopes of achieving our common goal, the improvement of GayGames.
These blogs educate us all (thank you OutSports!).
Remember, NONE of these feedback mechanisms exist in a WorldOutGames, which just throws the events over the wall to mainstream mercenary organizations. The GayGames has almost 20 years of BlueBooks, they do work in changing the RedBooks for the next cycle, and every GayGames exposes some new nuance issue that we have never seen before.
Please accept my congratulations and thanks. Koeln has (like Chicago) proven without a doubt the superior LGBT sporting event model that is the GayGames.
on Aug 12th, 2010 at 2:13 AM
Cyd & Jim,
Congratulations on your coverage of Gay Games VIII. As one who couldn’t attend Cologne for personal reasons, I found your coverage expansive, insightful and just plain fun to read. Additionally, your video vignettes were some of the best work I’ve ever seen from this website.
Cologne and all of Germany should be proud of their week in the sun. I have heard nothing but good things from many of my friends in attendance. It makes one look forward to what can occur in Cleveland in 2014.
Again, congratulations to the two of you for a fine job.
on Aug 13th, 2010 at 12:51 PM
Here is my analysis and review of Köln’s Gay Games 2010 from the peanut gallery. I think the Köln’s GG2010 organizing committee and the FGG did another superior job in presenting the GG toward the world. For the second consecutive time, the Gay Games were offered to all participants, competitors, and spectators in an efficient and effective manner without any major league drama. Kudos to be extended to all individuals who planned, organized, and presented these games to the world!
The Köln’s GG2010 committee did a great job in conducting the events and competitors, hosting sporting contests in appropriate facilities, and performing efficient event management at all facilities and competitors. In cases of events running ahead or behind schedule, the individual sports committee made appropriate adjustments during the course of competition without any major league drama at specific venues.
I heard and read my critical comments regarding the level of participants attending these games in Köln. Remember, the world is currently facing severe economic conditions due to overspending with infrastructure projects and over inflation with real estate prices in many nations. Over the past decade, many bankers, financial firms, and investors overextended themselves in lending and financing many unworthy projects before the collapse of their weak house of cards or sand castles in late 2008. You have many competitors who are unemployed and could not afford to attend these games because they are searching for employment back in their home countries. In addition, those competitors, who are employed and lucky to draw a good paying check, are forced by their employers to forgo any extended leave and/or vacation time during these challenging economic times. As in general society, many competitors are fearful in losing their jobs if they took any time off from the employment to attend these games. Most of competitors attending the games in Köln were either self-employed in their chosen fields, successful business owners and consultants, government employed administrator and educators who were taking their summer vacations/breaks, or unemployed slackers like me who have filthy rich 96 year Irish America grand mama and retired, slacker academician 71 year dad that could have finance my travels to Köln.
Remember, five EC countries are economic basket cases with their own economies as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland had their own “Politicians and Bankers Gone Wild” behavior in overspending with public work projects and in allowing for tax evasion and corruption in their home countries. If you follow world economics, you can read where German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was not very happy in rescuing all of these countries from their financial messes in preserving the EC and its currency. However, these challenging financial times have benefited the Americans and Canadians as it made the Euro affordable at its lowest rate in conversion ($ 1.31 USD to $ 1.00 Euro Dollar) due to Europe’s mess!
In another email, I will attempt to rate the venues and event management as I witnessed during my 10 days in Köln. However, guys …do not be some tough on yourselves! Give credit was credit was due!!
Everyone did an awesome job …. Savor your successes again.
on Aug 13th, 2010 at 12:55 PM
In my first few sentences and paragraphs, I meants to say competition not competitors … Sometimes, I think too fast for my own good and I do not have a full time secretary and/or assistant who can correct my grammar. However, if you give some financial statements, books, or budgets, I do perform a world of wonders!!! LOL!!!
on Aug 15th, 2010 at 12:52 AM
Outsports outdid itself in giving us stayathomes a whiff of the Games!!!
on Aug 15th, 2010 at 9:33 PM
I tried without success to get the NFLEurope Cologne Centurions to sponsor a flag football competition in order to build support for US football in Europe, The NFL has done something like this in the UK, so this was not entirely a useless effort, although I knew it was a very long shot.,but I was doing a bit of rehab in a hospital and had a lot of time on my hands[i.e.,stir-crazy]
on Aug 17th, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Cyd & Jim, being a “kölsche Jung” (Colognesider) and one of the “myriad” of volunteers (in fact ~2,500) of the Cologne Gay Games 2010 I can’t tell how pleased I am with all the coverage you have managed to get “on air”: As I was most of the week quite busy with organisational stuff – next to little 5k + 10k running and partying
– it is VERY releaving now to read that Köln seems to have successfully staged another historical piece in the Gay Games movement. I can’t tell how proud I am on my city and wish that many athletes from across the globe won’t forget the good vibe experienced on the fields and in the streets and start to build / continue to improve local sport and cultural communities to make our voice even louder – and get one day not only our own media (like Outsports), but also mainstream media to watch, listen and report on our stories. Thanks boys for a really great job you have done in Cologne, Outsports has a new German fan!
on Aug 22nd, 2010 at 8:05 PM
My grade would be A+. I wish I could thank and hug every volunteer and every staff of the games. My life was perfect for 9 wonderful, exciting and fun days thanks to all of your efforts.
For the future, if the opening ceremony and the opening party could be in the same location, that would be helpful. THANKS !!
on Nov 12th, 2011 at 6:21 AM
Good blog! I really love how it’s easy on my eyes as well as the data are well written. I am wondering how I could be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!