This Swedish runner was one of the stars of the track and field sprints.

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Koizumi, 41,  won a gold medal in men’s 40-44 110-meter hurdles and a silver in the triple jump.

Koizumi joined OSTP last year from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and spends his days focused on budget and appropriations issues related to NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation and the Energy Department. In his down time he swims and runs, but rarely practices for hurdles, he said.

“I didn’t think I was hooked on it, but I’d done the hurdles at a different distance at the last games and thought I’d try this sprint distance in Cologne,” Koizumi said in an interview.

“I tried it, and hey, I was pretty good at it,” he said with a laugh.

Koizumi is not the only one in his family to bring home hardware from Cologne. His husband, Commerce Dept. employee Jeff Dutton, won the silver in the marathon in the men’s 35 age group.

Check out Outsports’ complete Gay Games coverage, including videos, photo galleries and articles.

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FGG officer of marketing Doug Litwin, one of the driving forces behind the program, said he hopes they can raise enough money and awareness to help elite gay athletes come out of the closet and compete in the Olympics. He said the impetus came in 2008 upon hearing that Matthew Mitcham’s partner was having trouble raising the money to get to the Beijing Games.

The initiative will be funded by donations solicited from Gay Games participants and member organizations. All donations collected for the program will be divided evenly between two initiatives: 50% will go to help openly gay athletes reach the Olympic Games; 50% will go to the Gay Games’ scholarship fund, which helps disadvantaged athletes attend the Gay Games.

Presently the plan is to offer financial support only to athletes who have qualified for the Olympics and have received confirmation that they will represent their country in the Games.

While some details have been announced, the launch of the program is still in the works. The FGG was hoping for support from the International Olympic Committee, but the IOC has yet to respond to their request to work together, according to Litwin.

This is part of a broader FGG initiative to make the Olympic Games for gay-friendly. They have also launched the Principle 5 campaign, which seeks to make explicit in the Olympic charter that discrimination based on sexual orientation on sports is not acceptable. The FGG is also organizing openly gay volunteers for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

Also visit our Gay Games VIII blog for complete coverage of the 2010 Games.

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I was surprised by the lack of American women at the event. Only about a third of all the competitors were female; And only a small percentage of those were from the U.S.

The North Americans completely dominated a couple sports in Cologne. All four of the beach volleyball men’s divisions were won by North American teams (three U.S., one Canada). All three medals in the men’s A-division basketball went to American teams (San Francisco, Long Beach, Washington DC).

It wasn’t until day 5 that the crowd at track & field saw a false start. That’s an incredible run. Heck, I used to false start intentionally in high school. You either get away with it, or the other runners are taken off guard. I guess it was quite the genteel competition.

It was pretty clear whom the crowd favorites were at water polo. The Australian and European fans showed up in droves to cheer for their teams; It seemed virtually no one wanted the Americans to win. But in both the bronze- and gold-medal matches, it was the Americans who prevailed. West Hollywood beat Amsterdam for the bronze, and Utah (QUAC) beat Melbourne for the gold, 11-5.

It was interesting to hear the scuttlebutt at water polo about straight players. Many teams accused other teams of recruiting too many straight players. As the National Center for Lesbian Rights sues gay softball for trying to limit the number of straight players at their tournaments, it’s clear many gay water polo players don’t want their events overrun by straights.

The road races were huge, with many locals joining the event. There was also a great festive atmosphere with a local yoga instructor leading hundreds of runners in a pre-race warm-up and stretch. Not to mention the “ladies” with balloon-sized busts in tight pink shirts. Oh my.

It was cool to see two American dignitaries handing out the silver and gold medals for the men’s A-division basketball. Vice-Consul Matthew Paschke (Frankfurt) and Consul Chris Grossman (Dusseldorf) both made appearances.

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One swimmer was disqualified for wearing a Neoprene suit, which has been outlawed. There was also one disqualification for competing in more than three relays.

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There were many others, too many for us to easily quantify. So if you’re a former collegiate athlete, tell us how you did here.

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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.

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The Rockdogs were in control for much of the game with some athletic drives to the basket and break-away steals. The turning point in the game came when the Rebels received two technical fouls and one personal foul on the same play. The Rockdogs got six consecutive technical free throws; Though they only made one of them, they also got the ball back, made that basket, and the Rebels’ energy seemed to drain after that. The Rebels did cut the deficit to 7 points with back-to-back 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter, but the Rock Dogs responded with two quick baskets that iced the game.

The Rebels also missed an opportunity early in the third quarter. The Rock Dog’s L. Survillion received his fourth personal foul, and Long Beac captain Mark Chambers implored his team to drive the ball at Survillion; However, the Rebels failed to execute the attack and Survillion never fouled out.

In the bronze medal game, the DC Sentinels beat the Sydney Specters, 58-44. American Vice-Consul Matthew Paschke (stationed in Frankfurt) and Consul Chris Grossman (stationed in Düsseldorf), along with openly gay former NFL player Dave Kopay, awarded the three American teams their medals.

As Chambers received his silver medal, everyone in attendance seemed to understand the significance of the moment. Chambers is a legend in the gay basketball world and has been the driving force behind it for over a decade. His was playing in what he says is his last Gay Games, and his emotions overwhelmed him as he bent his head to receive the silver medal. The ceremony stopped briefly for an impromptu standing ovation.

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The champs.

The Queer Utah Aquatics Club of Salt Lake City,  or QUAC, stormed to the open division gold in water polo by dominating the Melbourne Storm, 11-5, in the gold medal game Friday. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer team. (gallery below).

Melbourne came into the game unbeaten and winners of a 9-7 match against QUAC in pool play. But coach Tom Taylor told me beforehand that the team had learned from the loss and put some wrinkles into the game plan. The result was a quick 4-1 lead that had Melbourne flustered. The Storm did not keep its composure and committed a lot of fouls and even allowed a goal on a penalty shot.

QUAC, along with the Icelandic swimmers and Cologne sprinters, were my favorite teams at these Games. They were all incredibly friendly and cooperative, happily posing for photos (see gallery below) even shortly before the match. And I got to spend some time on the sidelines with Taylor’s two teenage adopted sons, who were cool to hang out with. The water polo final is always a marquee event for me and QUAC clearly deserved its title.

In the bronze medal game, WeHo scored with less than 30 seconds left to beat Amsterdam, 4-3.

Winding down: The Games are pretty much done, with just the marathon, basketball and soccer golds to be decided. After a week of competition, people looked drained, but happy. This has been a terrific event and Cologne should be proud. I will do a longer recap when I get back to L.A.

Ancestral ties: Met a gay journalist from Croatia who was thrilled to hear that Gay Games ambassador and former NFL player David Kopay is part Croatian. Go figure. Spending time with Dave this week has been a real highlight, especially when he and Cyd argue politics.

Courteous drivers: I am amazed at how quickly cars here stop for pedestrians – just take a step near a crosswalk and traffic halts. I wonder how a New Yorker driving here would fair, or New York pedestrians for that matter, who think traffic laws are made to be ignored.

Gallery,  QUAC at the gold medal game (click for large view, then again for full-sized view):

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