One in a series of first-person articles from athletes competing in the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne. Julio Aponte Cleveland I was born in Colombia in 1945, but in 1949, political violence displaced my family to the capital, Bogota. I was raised in a Catholic homophobic country and felt guilty about being different. I did [...]
Posts under ‘Swimming’
Gay Games profile: Paulette Meggoe, cycling
One in a series of first-person articles from athletes competing in the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne. Paulette Meggoe Bronx, NY I have been an athlete ever since I was a child. I grew up with five brothers whom I had to always chase after. For a long time, I was the only girl in [...]
Two straight Olympians support Equality Swim
Equality California’s “Swim For Equality” has garnered the endorsements of two Olympic gold-medal swimmers. Gary Hall and Lenny Krayzelburg (right) are both lending their support for the event that will help raise money to fight for gay rights in California. What makes this particularly newsworthy? Both swimmers are straight. Gary Hall said in a statement: [...]
EQCA event with Greg Louganis June 19
Openly gay Olympic diving champ Greg Louganis is throwing his support behind Equality California’s ‘Swim For Equality’ in September. To kick off his support, Louganis is the headline guest speaker at a cocktail party next Saturday, June 19. I am so proud to be a part of the inaugural Swim for Equality, an event that [...]
Jack Mackenroth’s Gay Games Diary, Part 2
Editor’s note: Swimmer and former Project Runway contestant Jack Mackenroth will blog regularly leading up to his participation in the Gay Games. My last post was last month just after I had finished a week of intense training at swimming boot camp at the Hall of Fame pool in Ft. Lauderdale. Since then my training [...]
Gay Games: A swimmer’s amazing comeback
One in a series of first-person accounts by athletes attending the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne, Germany, July 31-Aug. 7. By Brian Galyean I remember when I was 14 years old and sitting at home that hot Texas summer watching the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Carl Lewis was all over the news with his [...]
EQCA swim event kickoff party May 29
Equality California will host a Malibu-based swim event on Sept. 25, and to kick off a summer of raising money and awareness for the event they are hosting a pool party this Memorial Day Weekend! The event is Saturday, May 29, from 12noon-4pm in the Hollywood Hills. Tickets are $40 if purchased in advance. The [...]
Gay, black swimmer Jeff Commings’ new book
Elite competitive swimmer Jeff Commings, who still swims in master’s meets, is coming out with a book later this month that chronicles his life as a swimmer who also happens to be gay and black. Here is the press release about the book (which can be bought here): Books written by gay athletes in diving, [...]
Jack Mackenroth’s Gay Games Diary, Part 1
Editor’s note: Swimmer and former Project Runway contestant Jack Mackenroth will blog regularly leading up to his participation in the Gay Games. I am obsessed with swimming and as you may know I have no problem prancing around in a speedo. I was wearing one since I was 6. (No-not all the time) However when [...]
Aussie swimmer Daniel Kowalski comes out
Australian swimmer Daniel Kowalski, who won four Olympic swimming medals before retiring, came out as gay in an opinion article he wrote for Australia’s Sunday Age. “Living the lie and deflecting the innuendo grows tiring. It is emotionally exhausting and it flat out hurts no matter how hard you try to block it out,” he [...]
Virus delays NCCA swimming championship
The NCAA men’s swimming and diving championship was supposed to start Thursday, but a nasty virus affectin at least three teams forced the event to be postponed until Friday. Apparently as many as 18 swimmers and divers from Arizona, Stanford and Texas contracted the nasty and highly contagious Norovirus and were instructed not to go [...]
Kelly Kulick and Woman vs. Man
On January 24, leading professional bowler Chris Barnes went down in flames to a woman — Kelly Kulick — in the 2010 PBA’s Tournament of Champions. And David Whitley over at FanHouse couldn’t contain himself as he pooh-poohed Kulick’s performance. He started by crowing that “bowling is not an athletic event.” Then he alleged that [...]
Weekend hot jock: Best of 2009
We featured several dozen athletes in our Weekend Hot Jock series this year, so we figured we’d start the new year with a recap of the best of 2009. Maybe the top standout was Minnesota wide receiver Eric Decker. See other top picks after the jump… Share on Facebook
Stonewall Fire Island swim raises $100k
Last Saturday, the Stonewall Community Foundation in New York hosted an open-water swim to Fire Island that raised a whopping $100,000 for the organization! Next up for the Stonewall group is a second annual golf tournament. It’s great to see these organizations turning to sports to raise money and raising the awareness of athletics in [...]
Team DC’s 2009 scholarship winner
Washington DC’s gay Metro Weekly had a nice article last week about the recipient of Team DC’s 2009 student-athlete scholarship. In its second year, the scholarship goes to a self-identified gay athlete. This year’s winner was swimmer and tennis player Clayton Miller (right, with one of last year’s winners Michael Hull) from Wakefield High School. [...]
Is synchronized swimming a sport?
While covering the recent World Outgames in Copenhagen, I watched a bit of the synchronized swimming event (which had one of the better crowds of the week) and then had an engaging conversation with Canadian synchro swimmer Andrew Delaware. Delaware, along with synchro partner Nathan Doidge, won a bronze medal in duo synchro in Copenhagen [...]
Copenhagen close-up on the Outgames bombing
Another report just in from my Aussie friend Neil Keele, who competed in several men’s age-group swimming events and logged some PBs. (Congrats to Neil!) He was right there in the middle of the Outgames, yet he evidently got a less detailed picture on the bombing than we got from the media here in the [...]
The pool rules in Copenhagen
Five years ago, the Toronto Triggerfish water polo team went winless in tournament play. When they won their first match in 2005, it was a cause for celebration. And Thursday at the Copenhagen Aqua Arena, the team was over the moon winning its first-ever medal in competition. We have reports from water polo, swimming, track, [...]
Some use homophobia to fight swimming briefs?
As the debate over the length of competition swimsuits rages, some people are crying “homophobia” as others fight the reinstatement of the traditional brief. Longtime IGLA and Gay Games officer Charlie Carson has stayed on top of the growing debate and came across these disturbing accusations in articles on SwimNews.com; And some of the “gay” [...]
Phelps whines: Someone has a faster suit
Maybe no man has benefited financially more from the ridiculous race to have the fastest swimsuit than Michael Phelps. Well, now the fastest suit is on another athlete. German Paul Biedermann beat Phelps in the 200m freestyle and broke his year-old world record wearing a suit that is all the rage, is brewing a controversy, [...]