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Triathlete says
he's not gay
Upset that Outsports
refuses to remove his name
Sebastien
Gacond, a professional triathlete from Switzerland, is not
gay.
Gacond, 28,
made this pronouncement to Outsports after it would not
remove a link to a
photo of him competing in the Mooloolaba triathlon in
Australia. The link to a photo on Triathlon.org appeared May
4 on
Picture This, a daily feature.
"Surfing
the Internet I've just found a picture of me and my name
mentioned on your website," Gacond wrote. "I ask you to
remove my name and this picture straight away from
this website."
Outsports
replied that it did not host the photo on its server and
merely used a link, and asked whether Gacond's objection was
because it's a gay website.
"I know
that the picture is not hosted on your server. But my name
and the link is on your website," he wrote. "Yes I would
like to remove it because it's a gay website. I've got
absolutely nothing against gay people and the gay community
but I don't want my name and image to be link there as I'm
not gay ... I've got a girlfriend! Thank you for your
understanding."
Picture
This provides a daily link to a sports photo that caught the
editor's eye. Well-known athletes such as Brady Quinn, Alex
Rodriguez, Shaquille O'Neal, David Beckham and Tom Brady
have been featured, along with other professionals and
amateurs. No implication is made as to the orientation of
any athlete whose photo link appears. Gacond is the first
athlete in the six years the feature has appeared to ask
that a link be removed. The text on Outsports for the Gacond
link said: "Gacond, a Swiss triathlete,
finishes the swim portion of a recent event."
He also
said he was upset that his name on Outsports appeared
prominently on searches for "Sebastien Gacond" via Yahoo and
Google. "When I put my name in a search engine ... what come
out in 3rd & 4th is
outsports.com!" he wrote.
Outsports,
citing its journalistic rights, declined to delete his name.
Gacond has a
website that features an extensive photo gallery and
links to stories about him in various publications. "Your
website has a dozen articles about you, with photos and your
name in headlines. We have as much right as those news
organizations to use your name," Outsports wrote to him.
Gacond replied that with his Wesbite, "I'm trying to show a
professional image of myself (of what I'm and what
I do ... and NOT what I'm not...). As in the real
life I'm trying to have a professional image of what I'm on
the web."
Gacond said that if the
link were not removed he would "move on to the next step,"
though it is unclear what that means. Cynthia Counts, an
Atlanta-based attorney specializing in First Amendment
cases, said Gacond would not be able to show his privacy was
invaded "since the picture simply depicts Gacond as he was
at a public event." In 2004, Counts defended Outsports after
it was sued by a runner in the Los Angeles Marathon, who
said his photo on a gay website would cause people to think
he was gay. The suit was dismissed.
Gacond, 6-2 and 152 pounds, competes
regularly on the triathlon circuit and his goal is to make
the Swiss team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Among his
sponsors are Volkswagen, Asics and the Swiss Olympic Assn.
Gacond joins baseball's
Mike Piazza and the NFL's
Jeff Garcia as pro athletes who have declared they are
not gay.
June 6,
2007 |
