Outgames

By Cyd Zeigler jr.

Participants: How do you rate the Outgames?
Photo Galleries: Over 550 pics from water polo, tennis, swimming, opening ceremonies and more!

What an incredible week in Montreal, and what an incredible event GLISA and Montreal 2006 put on. It was telling that in the final days of the Outgames, I found it difficult to find someone who had harsh criticism for the event, and no one who would grade it worse than a B, with most giving A's. Here's my final assessment:

REGISTRATION: A
Everything seemed to flow beautifully. The volunteers registering were nice and helpful; the space was very large and made it easy to move around; the process was quick and painless. I tried to add a sport to my registration to see how it would go; the line was a little long, but the process was rather easy.

SPONSORSHIPS/FINANCES: A
Just like the Gay Games in Chicago, it looks like these Outgames will come in on-budget or darn close.

OPENING CEREMONIES: A-
I haven't gotten emotional at either of my Gay Games opening ceremonies, but this one got to me. I marched in with the athletes, and when we entered Olympic Stadium, the sound and the spectacle was overwhelming. I think a part of that is the fact that it was in a dome; that makes a big difference. It was 25 minutes of speeches, which I still think was a bit too long (by five to 10 minutes). And I was really put off by the Montreal crowd who booed one of the speakers. But, it was a fun show and seemed well-received.

GEOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION: A-
What was cool about this was that the conference the week before the Outgames started fed people from so many different countries into the event. I met participants from six continents, which was cool. If the American representation had been stronger, this grade would have been higher.

MY ADOPTED SPORT, TENNIS: A-
While I didn't play any sports, it was tennis that I went to five straight days to see a friend march to the semifinals. I did hear someone complain about a scheduling snafu; but, otherwise, I heard strong praise for the organization of the tennis tournament. It came across to me as a very professional tournament. My minor criticism: The seedings were way off. The top seed in the B-division lost his first match, 6-0, 6-0, to someone who lost his next match, 6-1, 6-1.

VENUES: A-
It's hard to imagine the venues could get much better, though handball was in a gym worse than the one in my former elementary school. I also loved how many of the sports were organized around mini villages; the one at Claude Robillard was exceptional.

CITY PRESENCE: A+
The presence of the Outgames was everywhere from, literally, the moment I stepped into the airport. And where there weren't posters promoting the Outgames or the opening ceremonies, there were volunteers or signs pointing you in the right direction. St. Catherine Street was blocked off (in part because of Gay Pride) which built the presence in the city. It's hard to imagine it being any better.

MEDIA EXPOSURE: B
This is a hard grade to give. The exposure in Montreal was phenomenal, with daily presence in the newspapers and on the TV, and certainly some radio presence. The American press didn't report on it much, which was to be expected.

RESULTS REPORTING: B+
As with Chicago, a big improvement, thanks to the Internet, over past Gay Games. Some results were still slow to come in, but organizers seem to be getting most everything onto their Web site.

BEYOND THE SPORTS: A+
Incredible. What the organizers did outside the sports blew away anything I had seen before. Viger Square, which was essentially the athletes village for the week, was an incredible space (though it was undermined three or four evenings by rain). St. Catherine Street was shut down, which created a mile-long block party in the Village. There were parties for each sport, other parties to celebrate the Outgames as a whole. And the pool party was quite fun.

OTHER: B
The weather, for the most part, was as good as you could hope for in the first week of August. One day was partially marred by rain, and another was scorching hot. But, the other six days were sunny and warm. There seemed to be a volunteer on every street corner, but they sometimes couldn't answer basic questions.

OVERALL: A-
The production of these Outgames will be the standard by which all future events like this are measured. There were some hiccups, as there will be in any event. But, from organization to the City of Montreal itself to the people with whom I worked while reporting on the Outgames, the event itself was a smashing success.

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