There's not just one kind of athlete

Thanks to Keph Senett for pointing us to this post that references a photo shoot of a variety of athletes from different sports.

It points out the diversity in body types, a subject dear to us at the FGG. In our guidelines for sports programs, based on our 30-odd "core sports", we offer flexibility for hosts while attempting to ensure that the Gay Games suit the needs and ability of a wide variety of athletes. Body type is a big part of this concern, as is the variety of types of athletic ability: endurance, speed, coordination, etc.

View all the photos HERE.

Roger Brigham tells the story of relationships based on sport and art

John Winterhalter playing a piano sonata 
composed by Ben Olsen. (Photo: Roger Brigham)  

Music and the Mat - How Sports and Culture Intertwine
by Roger Brigham
Published 05/03/2012, Bay Area Reporter, reprinted with permission

When folks in the vast beyond think of San Francisco, they think of couples such as Don Jung and Ben Olsen. Their story is so typical, so representative, so... San Francisco. And now, long after they were both lost in the 1980s onslaught of AIDS, one man whose life they touched is working to make sure their works are not forgotten.

This is a story about wrestling and music – about how the threads of culture and sport can be so intertwined in our lives it is hard to see where one begins and the other leaves off. It is a story about taking the time to change a life and to remember one. The end hasn't been written yet, but the morals of the story are clear: Never forget the folks who made you who you are, and never leave without saying goodbye.

Jung and Olsen were transplants who met in San Francisco. Olsen was from Missouri, where he studied at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Olsen moved to San Francisco in the 1950s, then in 1968, the year after the Summer of Love, he met Jung, an artist from Montana.

That began an 18-year relationship. They lived in a tiny apartment in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, opening the Newest Sphere junk shop in 1969 before moving across the bay to Richmond to open Glass Blast, where Jung churned out etched glass and sand-blasted artistic creations. Olsen taught music for many years before retiring to write music full-time at home.

It was while they were in Haight-Ashbury that their paths crossed with 14-year-old John Winterhalter.

"I was out there running around, smoking pot," Winterhalter told me during a visit to the Bay Area over the weekend. "A friend told me he knew a composer and I was in shock. I didn't know there were still composers living."

Soon Winterhalter, who had tried unsuccessfully years earlier to learn to play piano first from his father and then in group classes, was paying Olsen $5 a session for piano lessons. "I was more a pain in the ass than anything," he said. "I was supposed to be there for an hour and I would spend all day."

Often Winterhalter would learn by playing one of the dozen variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" Olsen had arranged. They are complex, often humorous riffs on the classic children's theme, demanding patience and discipline.

"I could never make that tinny piano sound the way he could make it sound," Winterhalter said. "He could make beautiful sounds on that piano. Sometimes I would make a mistake just to hear him play it."

The mark those days left on Winterhalter was more than musical; it became a part of his inner psychic core.

"He filled in a lot of what my father couldn't," Winterhalter, 45, said. "We talked a lot about philosophy. One time he took an hour asking me about a coffee pot and about which was invented first, the handle or the pot. Eventually I realized what he was telling me was that form follows function."

Those sessions were prized moments of sanity and stability away from the crazy streets of San Francisco, where Winterhalter felt his life was spiraling down into an inevitable mess. Then in 1979, when he was 19, he suddenly left the city and enrolled in the military. It was part impulse, part fear, part adventure, part desperation.

He never said goodbye. "I always felt badly about that," he said. "But I kept thinking later that maybe they escaped all of the madness going on, that maybe they escaped AIDS, that they were alive."

And alive they were for some time after that. Jung, whom Winterhalter remembered as always being rather quiet and puttering around in the background, creating the artwork that paid their bills, began wrestling once more. Jung had placed in the state high school championships when he was a kid back in Montana and drew on that experience in 1982 when he accepted Dr. Tom Waddell's challenge to create a wrestling club to host the Gay Games I wrestling tournament. He also created a new wrestling program at Mission High School. Jung took the gold medal in that inaugural Gay Games.

But just four years later, suffering from AIDS and pneumocystis, he was dead, just days after winning the silver medal in Gay Games II. Two and a half years later, Olsen was dead as well.

All of which Winterhalter belatedly learned only after going online and doing Internet searches for his old mentor. He said when he found out Olsen was dead, he balled up and cried. "It was like my father died," he said.

And then three months ago he set out to see if he could make sure that the music his mentor composed would never die.

"There are a few pieces out there I know of," he said, "but I remember two big drawers full of manuscripts. I know there's a full symphony he finished." Winterhalter has some of the sheet music in his possession, including pages of the "Twinkle" variations he worked on in his youth, and a dramatic sonata that through themes of urban madness repeatedly returns to a compelling love theme and a wedding march.

"He wrote it in 1968, the year he met Don," Winterhalter said. "I think the sonata is about what meeting Don meant to him."

These days, Winterhalter, who is straight and married, lives in Northridge and drives for a delivery company. He has been trying to track down all the information he can about Olsen and Jung, find as much of Olsen's music as he can, and make sure it is archived rather than lost. Most of the people he knew who knew the couple back then have long passed on, but he is trying to learn as much as he can through conversations and Internet searches.

Which is how he ended up at my home last weekend, tapping out bits of Olsen's tunes on our grand piano with my husband, Eduardo.

During one of his Internet searches, he had found a reference to the Don Jung Memorial Wrestling Tournament run by Golden Gate Wrestling Club. Winterhalter had left San Francisco before Jung had returned to wrestling, but he remembered hearing that Jung had been a wrestler. He contacted the club and next thing he knew, he was in our house – just as before, the home of a musician and a wrestler.

Which brings us to the morals of this story. Winterhalter can't say goodbye to the mentor he left more than 30 years ago, but he can do his best to pay him back by making sure his musical legacy is remembered, just as GGWC did in 2007 by renaming its tournament after Jung, its founder.

So, any of my readers who were active in the local music scene back in the day or know of people who might have known the couple can email Winterhalter at jw7754@yahoo.com to help him with research. Who knows, maybe the symphony will be unearthed and resurrected for a performance one day.

The best source of information Winterhalter was able to find online about Jung and Olsen was, sadly, the AIDS obituary archive of the GLBT Historical Society and the Bay Area Reporter. It is a sad place to reflect but a wonderful place to post comments in memory of those we have lost. The archive can be accessed at HERE.

Translation of: The Gay Games, or "another idea of performance", in French sports review

In the latest issue of Sport et plein air, the magazine of the French workers' sport federation FSGT, dedicated to the theme "Another type of competition is possible", sociologist Philippe Liotard writes of the Gay Games as "another idea of performance".


You can download this special section (in French) HERE or read our translation:

The Gay Games, or "another idea of performance", in French sports review

In the latest issue of Sport et plein air, the magazine of the French workers' sport federation FSGT, dedicated to the theme "Another type of competition is possible", sociologist Philippe Liotard writes of the Gay Games as "another idea of performance". .


You can download this special section (in French) HERE or read our translation:

En français / Dans le magazine de la FSGT : Les Gay Games comme exemple "d'une autre compétition"

Dans le dernier numéro de Sport et plein air, le journal de la Fédération sportive et gymnique du travail, Philippe Liotard évoque les Gay Games à travers "la performance revisitée".

Commander le numéro pour 3 euros (port inclus) ICI, ou télécharger le dossier d'avril ICI.

Chicagoans shine during Gay Games

By Ross Forman from Windy City Times

The Gay Games brings together athletes of all shapes and sizes, of all races and religions, of all experience levels. There's the extremely high level of competitive basketball played by the San Francisco Rock Dogs to the leisurely "sport" of bridge. Gay Games VIII, held July 31—Aug. 7, brought more than 9,500 participants from 65 countries to Cologne, Germany, for the quadrennial sports and cultural extravaganza. Windy City Times reporter Ross Forman looks back at the Games through the eyes, ears, emotions and more of those who battled of gold, silver and bronze, as well as personal pride and accomplishment. About 125 participants went to Cologne from the Chicago area—and here are the stories of some of them.

Read full story HERE.


And the expanded version HERE.

Douglass and QUAC bring home gold

By Brad Di Iorio from Q Salt Lake

Over half of Team Utah athletes attending Gay Games VIII this summer brought home medals, with Utah’s top woman cyclist winning three gold medals, and the state’s water polo team beating the international favorite in the finals for the gold.

Margaret Douglass, the Utah athlete with the most medals from previous Gay Games, added three more golds to her collection of five gold and two silver medals in cycling. She was only supposed to compete in two events at this year’s games in Cologne, Germany, but when the German women’s team saw her perform in the criterium and road race, they asked her to join them for their team trial race.

“I felt very honored and told them yes [and] we won the gold. They were really strong [and] one of them had out-sprinted me in the two previous races,” said Douglass.

Read full article HERE

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

Live from Cologne: the last swimming events of the Gay Games

Live from Cologne report by Julio Aponte, Cleveland

On Friday at 6 pm, Pink Flamingo was a great hit. 4 great, fun, gay and campy competitors had fun entertaining us.

Paris Aquatique, the very large French team, had great costumes and swimmers in the water and 3 sides of the pool. They were well choreographed and with many costume changes. They put the final touch with a "train" and big sign that read PARIS LOVES KÖLN.

From 9:00 am to 2:30 pm, the last event of the competition took place - the 1500 meters freestyle. It takes about 22 to 49 minutes to complete. I did not participate. I had my 5 swim events, the limit of events allowed per participant. My friend from San Francisco Tsunami got the gold in my category, 65-69, with an IGLA and Gay Games record. The only Ohio Swimmer participating Friday was Corey Beck. He received a well deserved bronze medal.

Each Ohio Swimmer had a medal with a total of 4 golds, 4 silvers and 4 bronze medals - a great achievment for only five swimmers. We are planning more intensive coached sessions. We can see the posibility of improvment and it is so much FUN.

Julio Aponte

Live from Cologne: athlete's first race in the triathlon ends in a crash

Live from Cologne reported by Hector Torres, Florida

On my first race on the Triathlon, a cyclist crashed into me and I am hospitalized. Feeling better now, but won't be able to do any of my races.

However, I was 5th out of the water, overall, and 3rd in the lead in the bike until the accident. I'll keep you posted.

Live from Cologne: photos of Sydney's waterpolo match

Live from Cologne: USA wins friendly tennis match

Live from Cologne reported by Sonya Lewis, Colorado

Sonya Lewis and Fred Scott from USA beat Erna Vernog from Australia and Petros A from South Africa in a friendly match yesterday.

Live from Cologne: Team Ohio wins two more medals in swimming

Live from Cologne reported by Julio Aponte, Cleveland

Tuesday, August 3, Todd Urban won the gold in the 100 Backstroke breaking an IGLA and Gay Games record. Julio Aponte won a bronze in the 800 freestyle and Scott Campea won silver in the 100 breastroke.

Swimmers from Ohio accumulated 2 more medals today in the 200 backstroke. Todd won silver, just 7 seconds slower that the new Gay Games record and Julio won a bronze.

Of personal interest, Ken Hearn, my host in Toronto at my first IGLA meet in 2001, won gold in the 200 backstroke breaking a Gay Games record. The gold is an addition to his 2 previous silver medals. He is in the 70-74 age group. He and his partner Martin have been together for over 30 years.

Another gold medalist, 81 years young, and his partner have been together for 54 years. They have lived in New York City almost all their lives.

The people from Cologne (Köln) have been great and everybody makes a point to tell us how happy they are seeing us here. The owner of the internet cafe I am using was really surprised that I was here in Köln just to participate in the Gay Games. Museums, the river and churches are very nice. It is a walk able and bike able city with great public transportation. Participants and volunteers have a pass on all public transportation.

Julio Aponte

Live from Cologne: 68 year old Bob Callori wins a gold medal

Live from Cologne reported by Christoper Goodwin, San Francisco


Bob Callori, age 68, in 65-69 age group wins a gold medal!

Live from Cologne: Team Colorado wins first Gold Medal

Live from Cologne reported by Sonya Lewis, Colorado

Congratulations Mary Hetzel, Gold Medalist of Lafayette, CO!Mary is Phenomenal! She is probably (and we have to check the record books) the ONLY Colorado athlete who has won a gold medal in every Gay Games she has attended. Mary is a power lifter and has competed in every Gay Games, except the 2nd one in 1986 in SF. The finals came down to Mary and a German lifter, and Mary pulled it through..WOW ! And her partner, Terry, a tennis player could also not believe her eyes either. Gal Power Rocks!

Allison, originally from NY, has won a medal in every games she has attended in the last 10 years. She is a long distance runner and this is the silver medal in the 10K for her age group. She now lives in Berlin and according to our fab friends, Nana and Susanne..her German language is PERFECT ! (As someone who can barely say schneitzel..I am so jealous..)Wow..what a fun match we watched yesterday with the women’s soccer team all the way from Soweto, South Africa versus the tough Germans of Team Berlin. Back and forth Berlin scored and although they had many good tries..but that was the final score. Vuvusulas blaring…

And to end the day…good food and great company in the Cologne City Center and then music and a walk around the Woman’s space…It is living the Gay Games Dream…..

Live from Cologne: International Rainbow Memorial Run at Rheinpark

Live from Cologne reported by Stephen Kovacev, Provincetown

Greetings from Gay Games VIII Cologne. My day started with the "International Rainbow Run" at Rheinpark in honor of those who died of AIDS and breast cancer. Here is where I reconnect with my Gay Games family. Kisses, hugs and smiles abound seeing each other again in this emotionally charged ceremony as tears flow and names of those who passed on are read.

Here I am with Sarah Waddell-Lewenstein at the begining of the Internional Rainbow Memorial Run. Sarah is the widow of Tom Waddell founder of the Gay Games.

This is a picture of me carring a flag in the run-walk.

Live from Cologne: Team San Francisco earns a bronze in Track and Field

Live from Cologne reported by Christopher Goodwin, San Francisco

That is me, in lane 7, taking bronze!

Live from Cologne: Team Minnesota qualifies for 3 medals in bowling

Live from Cologne reported by D Rojas, Minneapolis

Hello from Team Minnesota, D Rojas!

I am participating in bowling and just finished up with my team event – singles and doubles. I have qualified for medals in all 3 events! I bowl on August 4 for doubles for the medal round and on August 5 for the team event medal round. On Friday, August 6th I will be bowling for the single medal round.

I will let you know my results!

D

Also, USA Women’s Hockey team won their game August 2 against Cologne, Germany.

USA-3 : Cologne-1

Live from Cologne: can the Gay Games change perspectives?

Live from Cologne reported by Carl Anhalt, Brooklyn

The photo of my mother at wrestling is her reading the guide book about the history of the Gay Games and the Federation. Twelve years ago when I attended my first Gay Games in Amsterdam, she was not supportive, at all, and very upset at the idea. I had just come out to her earlier that same year, at the age of 20.

This year, she and her best friend (both of them Mormon) are driving around Europe and stopped in Cologne to watch me play water polo, watch my friend Perry Bigley wrestle (he won silver for his age/weight), and see some of the other events as well. My mother, who voted "yes" on Prop 8 in California two years ago, got to meet so many friendly lesbian and gay athletes and spectators, and had such a positive experience while here.

I don't know if the experience will have changed her politics at all, but I can imagine it has given her a greater perspective towards tolerance and acceptance.

Live from Cologne: Sailing Team Liberty

Live from Cologne reported by Matthew Stuczynski, Chicago

In the spirit of the gay games and international cooperation, these three from three different countries make up the sailing team LIBERTY.

Mookje Korst, England

Anna Einarsdottir, Holland

Matt Stuczynski, U.S.