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By
Cyd Zeigler
Jr.
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From
Romania, With Love: I met two Romanians at
table tennis on Sunday:
Ciprian Dragu (left;
click image for larger view) and his boyfriend
of a year, who asked to remain anonymous.
While it's interesting enough that they are from
Romania (Dragu said it's hard enough just being
gay there), they're also both handicapped. Dragu
was born with polio – he showed me his legs,
which seemed to be literally skin and bones; his
boyfriend was born with one deformed arm. Both
were orphans and both have struggled in their
home country with being the butt of attacks for
both their sexuality and their handicap. Dragu
said the reception to them both has been
incredible in Montreal, which has been a nice
change from what they're used to.
Dragu's handicap doesn't allow him to play a
sport; his boyfriend plays table tennis.
Dragu now runs the only gay magazine in Romania,
Switch. It was given to him by the former owner,
from Massachusetts; Dragu has plans of making it
a broader gay magazine, enveloping other
minorities such as the handicapped. He is also
hoping to infuse it with more style. Dragu is
hoping to move to the United States -– probably
Boston -– in the next few months to pursue a
career in administration.
He is hoping to some day attend a university in
the United States, but he's a little gun-shy. A
high school in Romania actually rejected his
admission because he has polio. I assured him
that many universities in the U.S. would kill to
have a handicapped gay male from Romania among
their student body.
It's so easy for us to forget how well we have
it in North America. While we're battling for
more of our rights, talking to Dragu, I just
couldn't help but think that my life couldn't be
more blessed. And the funny thing is, I think
Dragu might say the same thing about his life,
despite how hard it may be at times. Also:
Check out Ciprian Dragu's blog.
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The yellow
shirts: The volunteers, clad in bright
yellow t-shirts here in Montreal, seem to be
everywhere. Virtually every time I have had a
question in the last two days, I've found a
volunteer to help me. How helpful they've been –
that's been hit or miss. Today, we got to the
Claude-Robillard sports complex, which is
housing a bunch of sports. I asked one of the
volunteers, "Where is tennis?" "It's outside,"
she replied. Uh, I figured. Mind you, there are
acres and acres of field and outdoor space at
this complex.
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The best
fans of the day: At the Catalonia (Spain)
vs. Switzerland women's soccer match, the
Catalonian fans put the Brazilian World Cup fans
to shame. For the entire match, they were
screaming, waving their pom-poms, blowing their
air horns – it really invigorated the event.
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Thank you
No. 6: Montreal reminds me of "The Village"
from the incredible BBC series, "The Prisoner."
Everyone's happy, helpful, greets you with a
smile. And I swear the little jingle that you
can hear when the subway doors close is taken
right from the soundtrack.
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Quiet,
please: The table-tennis venue was pin-drop
quiet, except for the tat-tat-tat of the ping
pong balls as the athletes batted them back and
forth. I kept envisioning a crowd cheering
wildly at the end of each point; but, there's so
little time between each point, it would be
little more than two claps and more quiet.
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The
marathon tennis match: My friend who's
staying with me, Mathew Bergman, entered the B
division of men's tennis and played one of the
longest three-set matches I've ever seen: It
took 3 hours, 13 minutes to complete. He won,
6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-2. While I only saw about half
the games, it seemed like every one went to
deuce. It was bizarre. In the end, Bergman's
opponent, who was 44 years old, ran out of
steam. He complained afterward that the match
took too long; but, that's nobody's fault. It
was a great match between the two players, and
both should be really proud of their efforts.
l
Grumblings
from water polo: I chatted with a very hot
member of the Toronto Triggerfish water polo
team who isn't happy about how that tournament
is being run. Apparently, there's one skill
division that is divided into three equal
divisions. In the end, the three teams that win
their division will play later this week for a
medal. That is, of the 13 teams in pool play,
only three will make it to the "playoffs." It
does seem like an odd system. While I can see
eliminating some teams (maybe the worst five)
after the round robin, based on record, making
each game count that much just seems odd. He
said his team and several others complained
weeks ago, but to no avail.
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Village
idea well-done: I really like how the
Outgames are doing most of the medals
ceremonies. Because each of their six sports
zones are pretty compact, they have a central
area to do the medals ceremonies in most or all
of them. So, at Zone 2, track, volleyball,
tennis, water polo, women's soccer, wrestling
and diving all share the same medals podiums.
Also, the mini-villages are great. Surrounding
each of the medals podiums are booths and tents
that offer food, massages, free items from
sponsors. It helps bring together people of
different sports to chat, have fun, and
celebrate one another. Well done.
l
A track
faux pas: At the 45-50 men's 200-meter race
today, runners thought they were competing in
the semifinal heats, as is listed in the
program. However, after the race, they were told
that was the final. I know most sprinters run a
heat very differently from how they'd run a
final; seems like an odd, somewhat unfair, move,
but I wasn't there to judge for myself.
l
Straight
Tahitians take powerlifting: It was pretty
cool watching two Tahitians win their respective
gender groups in powerlifting; what was even
more cool was learning that they are both
straight.
Vahineari Buchiri was the top female competitor,
lifting a combined 870 pounds; Andy Faremiro was
the top male lifting a combined 1645 pounds. In
powerlifting, each competitor does three squats,
three bench presses, and three deadlifts; the
highest weight from each type of lift counts
toward their total.
They came here at the invitation of the Canadian
Bodybuilding Federation (Tahiti also sent three
bodybuilders, in addition to the two
gold-medal-winning powerlifters). Because of
their sexuality, they were a bit wary at first,
but the Canadians assured them that the Outgames
were open to anyone.
"We came here for sport," said Violette Piritua,
who was cheering on her fellow Tahitians and who
attended the conference last week before the
Outgames.
Itay Hod from Logo joined me at powerlifting. He
tried to get a good on-camera interview, but
virtually no one there spoke English very well.
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From
Olympic gold to Outgames silver: Mark
Tewksbury swam in the 4x100-meter relay on
Sunday, and his team finished second. While they
set a Canadian masters record, the Dutch team
bested them.
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"Not
Lesbian, Lebanese!" I've gotten a couple
emails from people asking about the Lebanese
athletes. Unfortunately, they were only here for
a sports conference and are not participating
athletes. I'll be tracking down one of the
Israelis at some point to ask them about the
current conflict there.
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The
Pasadena of the north: This week, my friend
Mat Bergman and I are staying in a gorgeous
apartment in Westmount, which is about four
miles west of the gay village. It's a very
quaint little neighborhood, lots of shops and a
main drag that's got some nice coffee shops and
cafes (and a Starbucks, of course). It reminds
me of Pasadena, Calif. And the brownie milk
shake at Java U was to die for. |
Water polo
(10 photos)
Wrestling
(24 photos)
Tennis
(18 photos)
Opening cermonies
(59 photos)
Soccer
(12 photos) |
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