Live from Cologne: Gay Games proved success for all wrestlers

Live from Cologne report by Robert Lubarsky, Florida

Wrestling on Monday and Tuesday:

The wrestling event at the Games was a great success. There were forty wrestlers from nine different countries. Monday was a workshop, followed by the official weigh-in. After that, some chose to enjoy the opportunity to wrestle informally with their buddies, while others saved their energy for the next day's competition.

Tuesday we saw a number of spectators cheering the wrestlers on. Because of the large number of age and weight categories (3 and 10, respectively) relative to the number of participants, matches were set up reaching across the category boundaries, even though they did not affect the distribution of medals in the end. As could be expected, some of the matches seemed to have a clear winner from the beginning, others were dramatic until the end.

Wednesday afternoon, most of the wrestlers gathered in the Brennerei Weiss for some food and drink and also some announcements. There were discussions about upcoming wrestling events -- the Outgames, the Eurogames, Wrestlers Without Borders' annual tournaments, and the next Gay Games.

Bob Lubarsky