Team Oregon in the news

Just Out has been covering the work of Team Oregon to prepare for Gay Games VIII.

Starting with this article about Team Oregon itself (extract):

But another group of Northwest athletes has its sights set on this coming August, when the world’s largest sporting event—in terms of participation—zeroes in on Cologne, Germany. Gay Games VIII is poised to be well-represent­ed by Oregon, thanks to organizational efforts by a slew of gay, lesbian, bi, and trans activists, athletes, supporters and more. Collectively, they are Team Oregon 2010.

Four years ago, Portland businessman Brian Craig assembled a group of athletes to attend Gay Games VII in Chicago. While the trek to the Windy City that year was a success, with many lauded individual performances and a good share of medals, the scope of that organi­zational project was considerably smaller than the Team Oregon 2010 effort.


Starting in October 2008, Rob Patton began the push for generating funds, buzz, and mem­bership for Team Oregon to attend the Games in Cologne, building on expertise shared by Craig and those athletes who’d prior attended the Games—but also with a new fundraising and sponsorship component in tow.

Membership for Team Oregon 2010 has emerged as essentially a “pay to play” collective system, wherein members—who pay just $20 to join—earn points by assisting and partici­pating in various fundraising events, commu­nity awareness campaigns, and team meetings, among other endeavors. These points are then allocated toward disbursement of funds focused on sending as many athletes as possible to Co­logne in August. Members planning on attend­ing are responsible for registering themselves for the Games (fees range from 140 to 200 euros, roughly $200-$280 ), but the Team Or­egon umbrella is designed to offset the costs for travel and lodging contingent upon how much work each member contributes as a whole.

“The idea is that the more effort that mem­bers put into our organization, the more reward they’re going to get for going,” explains Patton. “It’s mostly set up because we don’t want some­one to be able to join a week before the Games and score this trip when they didn’t really help contribute to it. Together we can accomplish much more than we could as individuals.”

And continuing with profiles on ballroom dancers Sandra Gladney and Linda Smith in this article (extract):

In its attempt to make Team Oregon 2010 a truly statewide athletic recruitment effort, organizers are thrilled to bring back participants Sandra Gladney and Linda Smith from Eugene to compete in the ballroom dancing competition.

Gladney and Smith aren’t strangers to the Gay Games. They aren’t even strangers to the weight of the medal, having competed in the 2006 Chicago Gay Games, coming away with a silver in the “E” division—or newcomers division—for ballroom dance.

The couple have been together for 22 years, and have danced together since the early 1990s. They moved to Eugene in 1995 and began social ballroom dancing with the lesbian dance group LezDance in 2000. They set their sights on their first Gay Games in summer 2005.

“We figured we knew a little about dancing, so we picked that as our sport,” explains Gladney. “We found out how different the ‘international’ competition rules and dance moves are from what we knew, so we worked with several professional ballroom dance teachers to prep for Chicago.”

That dedication to training has carried over into Gladney and Smith’s preparations for competing at Gay Games VIII.

And this article on runner Tim McNichol (extract):

Portland may be known globally as a bicycling mecca, but it’s the roadrunners who will be stepping up for our city at this year’s Gay Games in Cologne. Social worker and running fool Tim McNichol (right) will join other members of our esteemed Portland Frontrunners at his first ever Gay Games this year, competing in the half-marathon, 10K and 5K races.

McNichol began running about six months before he joined the Frontrunners, a group that promotes good health and provides an opportunity for positive social interaction through running, walking and club events in a supportive, gay, lesbian, bi and trans running community. He has been active in the club for three years.

“I feel very fortunate to be part of such a great group,” explains McNichol, who also runs and dances weekly with Portland’s Ecstatic Dancers. “Being able to enjoy a run with new and old friends is always a privilege. We are constantly sharing and learning from one another. We celebrate each other, and also support each other in our physical wellness.”