I am new to this board , but have followed the different discussion about the Outgames and the Gaygames.

I've to start a new thread to discuss the Outgames without the debates that are raging on the other threads.

So to start , I am not participating as an athlete: I will be attending the opening ceremonies and encouraging all the atletes. One of my best friend is going to swim the relay with Mark Tewksbury on sunday , and I will be cheering them ( and hope they win !) I have another friend doing the triatlon and the 10k run.

Yesterday was the opening of the Viger Square headquater. This will be Outgames central for the week : reataurants bars , small store are all set up there. Everynight , until 8 oclock , there will be DJ's for the happy hour , followed by shoew by local artist.

I went there at 6 oclock with a friend and were almost the first there , but by 8 , the place was packed for the cabaret shows. The acts were great: drags , live signers , dance etc. My only complain was the Drag MC for the evening didnot say a word in english ! I am french and very active in defending the french language in my province , but that was unacceptable on the launching night of a world event ! Happily , she was only there for a few minutes during the two hour show , but when you dont understand a word of what the MC is saying , those can be long ! I feel it is allright to show our local talent , and have them sign only in french ( it is expexted when you vivit the second largest french speaking city in the world)but the Mc should not be unilangual !

That was a minor mishap I think. Everybody was raving about how this space was incredible.

Alll the major media , electronic and paper ,are talking about the Games , both the french and the English ones. They of course are talking alot about the opening ceremonies tickets thet are not selling as expected. In fact , they talk about it so much , that I guess they are going to sell tickets that way !

I've met Brian and Steven from equipe San-Francisco. Planning to show them old Montreal tomorrow. They will be competting in track and field and dragon boat. Steven was at Gaygames and Brian is a mini cebrety: when he came to Montreal last year , representing Equpe San-Francisco , he kissed our Mayor ! (He thought that every french man were kissing each other , but , we are north- american french man , a bit different !

We had a wonderfull evening and I will come back here to report on the Outgames as much I can , and hope to read other stories !

[ July 29, 2006, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: Jim at Outsports ]

Same offer we made for Gay Games: Send us your stories and photos about competing and we would love to run them.

No representative of the conservative federal governement will be present at the opening ceremonies or during the games . However, the chef of the Bloc Québécois ,one of the parties in the opposition,, Mr Duceppe will be at the ceremonies and will be competing in the golf tournament. Mr Duceppe is straight. Another deputy , Mr Menard will be participating in wrestling. Mr Menard has been out for as long has he has been a deputy , around ten years.5 Deputies from the Liberal party , in the oposition as well , are going to be present at the opening ceremonies. This party has no chef right now.

On the provincial level, 3 deputies from the liberal party , which is in power , will be present at different events and André Boisclair , chef of the opposition , and gay , will be present at the opening ceremonies and Mr Lemay a deputy for the oppostion ( not declared if gay or straight ), will be participatin in the golf tournement as well.

Of course , our mayor will be there as well.

An almost comfirmed rumor says that , Alexandre Despaties , world and olympic champion diver will be part of the opening ceremonies.

Accreditation went well today. And we were a quick three stops back to the Village for lunch and shopping.

Sorry I missed the show yesterday but i was able to catch the fireworks show that England put on last evening on the waterfront. Simply amazing. Going to try to get to Viger Square tonite to catch the Glam Show!

Hey Toto2. Thanks for the new positive thread.

Just an update on Federal politicians. The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Bill Graham (former Minister of National Defence and former Foreign Affairs Minister) - is taking part in a number of Outgames related events, including the Team Toronto brunch on Saturday morning.

And Ontario government cabinet minister Jim Watson is hosting an Ontario athlete's reception in Viger Square from 6:30PM - 7:30PM on Monday!

Outgames' Wednesday photo gallery shows some photos from the Conference registration, opening dinner, and the opening night at Square Viger.

I'm jumping on the "Party Train" to Montreal at 5pm today! Looking forward to a great week. I'm participating in rowing doubles on Monday. Our heat has 1 German and 3 American crews in it so its going to be tough competition.

Just saw an Outgames segment on CBC's National news. It featured Mark Tewksbury, Martina Navratilova, k.d. lang's comments about Stephen Harper's conspicuous absense from the Games (Harper has also declined to attend the International AIDS conference in Toronto, despite the 20,000+ expected attendees; while the world applauds Canada's acceptance of gays and efforts to address the AIDS crisis, our country's leader is MIA :mad: )... and featured a mixed (gay/straight, male/female) soccer team from France preparing for the competition. Good national exposure for the event.

I saw the CBC piece too Canmark. I have also seen coverage on the CTV network. I am really impressed by the level of attention Outgames is getting in the English national media. The games are definitely not being covered as a 'local' Montreal event.
Even with the absence of the Prime Minister there is also an impressive level of attendance by national political figures. Too bad they didn't invite the Governor General to open the games as she most likely would have accepted. She will also be opening the international AIDS conference in Toronto.

CBC - Outgames story and video link

[ July 29, 2006, 06:10 AM: Message edited by: swiminbuff ]

Just arrived in Montreal yesterday from Amsterdam. First impression is already very good. Registration was perfect and the place Viger (the central meeting place) was amazing yesterday evening, great atmosphere. Nice music, very busy and everybody dancing in the open air.

Looking forward to a great week in Montreal.

Hey guys - made it to Montreal on yesterdays 9:30AM Outgames train from Toronto - great fun with the 30+ Brits, 10+ Kiwis and some Aussies thrown in too.
- Registration - a breeze
- Viger Square - Unreal - just an absolute blast last night, the place was PACKED!
- blanket media coverage locally. The first 4 stories on one of the local newscasts last night were Outgames related
- Ste Catharines - the gay village here in Montreal is all decked out. The street is closed for about a 1.5km stretch. Last night very busy and fun
- PWA (Toronto People With Aids) fundraising Toronto to Montreal Bike Rally arrived in yesterday afternoon. The hundreds of cyclists were give a huge welcome at Viger Sqare and Liberal Party of Canada leader Bill Graham gave a wonderful welcome speech.
- Team Toronto brunch today was AWESOME! Special guests were the women from St Petersburg Russia who were given a bursary of over $6000 by the Women for Montreal group, sort of the Women's division of Team Toronto. The women from Russia were obviously very moved as they received a long and loud standing ovation from the huge Team Toronto turn out. Then Bill Graham - also our guest for the brunch again gave a wonderful speech welcoming the women and thanking the people of Montreal for putting on such a wonderful and important event.
- time to get ready for the opening ceremonies. Already just passed through Viger Square again and the Dutch in their traditional orange were out in full force at the Dutch Gardens area of Viger Square. Obviously their meeting place before heading to Olympic Stadium. Team Berlin is out in force at the hotel next door. Already 50+ visible from the street in the bar area of that hotel in their Blue and Orange outfits.
Gay flags and Outgames stuff all over Montreal. Just down in Old Montreal and many of the great stores, restaurants and cafes down in that part of town are decked out in gay flags
- and it has not even really started yet. The opening tonight!

I thought this was interesting. It seems there is an "official photography" company that is taking portrait photographs of participants (for purchase). They'll be at all the various events, take people's picture, post them on their website, and then you just go to the website or booth at various locations and purchase whatever pics you want.

At first I thought this was dumb because most people have their own digital camera or cell phone camera, but I guess it might be nice to have a professional group portrait of your team in their uniform and such. And you can select individual photos, a collage of team and group and individuals, different size formats and mounting, and/or an electronic version on CD.

Supposedly they'll be at all the events (on certain days at certain times, listed on the website). And it's fun because you get to see other people's pictures when they're posted. At present there are only shots in the "static pictures" section.

Link to Photo Action Outgames site

Breakfast Television in Toronto did a feature on them last week when they were leaving Toronto. They've posted pics of the cyclists on the Outgames website:

Opening Ceremonies: Martina, Mark and k.d.

[img]http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20060730/i/r4032519093.jpg?x=380&y=275&sig=LAh2461rLN32SGw7mQG9zQ--[/img] [img]http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20060730/i/r1303387706.jpg?x=250&y=345&sig=1m_eT77NTt_c1gek2oDzaQ--[/img]

I must say, I have been very impressed with Montreal so far. The 25 minutes of speeches in the ceremonies were a bit of a downer (though the tone of the speeches was positive, 25 minutes of talking is a bit much). My notes coming later tonight (or this morning).

Just posted Cyd's notes and photos from the Opening.

Great photos Cyd!

Wow! That was a great start.
First - the weather gods must have been smiling on us. Just before grabbing the subway to Olympic Stadium, we noticed that there was a tornado watch out for Montreal as rain rolled in. Walking to the subway downtown, and on the completely packed subway cars - it was incredibly hot. Truly like a sauna. The incredibly gorgeous swimmer from Melbourne made the ride bearable though. Yet when we arrived at the Big O - sunshine - clear skies - very wet ground - so we must have just missed the rain. But best of all - no humidty and about 5C cooler than what we left 20 minutes earlier downtown.

Entering the stadium worked like clock work. It was over the top supercharged energy in the bowels of the stadium just before taking the field. Everybody was going crazy - especially the hundreds of Dutch. The roar under the stadium was deafening!

I agree with the comments about the speeches. But 25 minutes wasn't bad and they got them all over at once and then it was all fun and entertainment for 2+ hours after the speeches were out of the way. And I did feel sorry for the federal cabinet minister, but really was not surprised at the reaction in view of how much media play Harper being a no-show has been getting here.

I wasn't so sure I was going to like the idea of being on the stadium floor for the entire ceremonies, and in fact because we were on concrete it was getting a bit uncomfortable as the speeches dragged on. But then we discovered the astro turf - much softer to sit and stand on - plus the stairs to the beer concessions and washrooms so we were happy!

Actually my teammate Dave came up with a briliant idea. As we were free to roam all over the field, he decided our goal for the show would be to get our picture taken with as many people from different countries as we could. So we would get somebody from the country to hold up that country's parade sign and pose with us. Well we never did come close to getting all 109 countries - but we sure had fun trying. Plus we got the chance to meet so many great people literally from all over the world. My personal highlight of the night.

The entertainment was incredible. The Cirque du Soleil were at times mind boggling. And Paul I agree the women at the end who sang Over the Rainbow had one of the most amazing singing voices I had ever heard. And Jonas rocked the house down then Deborah Cox had the place going crazy! Plus everybody else gave great performances.

As for the attendance the Big O actually has just over 50,000 seats. My guess would be about 60% of those were full. So that would be a crowd of 30,000. Add the 13,000 athletes on the field and there were over 40,000 in the house I think.

And actually it was kind of neat that we got out of the stadium really quickly and were back at our hotel by 11:00PM. The French CBC's telecast (in high definition!) was taped delayed by a couple of hours, so we actually got to watch the last hour of the show again on TV. The sound was better, and the production values were absolutely first rate. Some of the camera shots from the various camera angles really made the event look absolutely amazing! And you know - it was!

Hit the Opening Dance Party at Metropolis. Great turnout and had a lot of fun dancing the night away with friends and others from all over the world. Somehow I ended up surrounded by Sydneysiders for much of the evening. Made me feel like I was at Mardi Gras!

Great start Montreal! Tonight - The Pride Parade! The fun continues!

From the Outgames website:
Opening Ceremony photo gallery
Sunday's events and competitions
Competition results

Photo Action photo galleries:
Opening Ceremonies

Was in Montreal for work and decided to stay the weekend for the opening of the games. Montreal embraced the games and the city was so excited about hosting them. I love Montreal, but this weekend was special. Straight and gay people alike were talking about the games. The hype was on national TV and newspapers. Straight pubs had gay flags in the windows to lure us in for beer. I met guys from Holland, Australia, Britain and Canada. We invited a great Danish guy over to eat breakfast with us so he wouldnt have to eat alone. Strangely, I didnt meet anyone from the USA. (Where were you Cyd?) The Opening Ceremony was great. There was so much energy in the stadium when the athletes walked in. I was sitting across the stadium from where the American team came out and only saw one lone American flag. The Aussies, Dutch and Brits brought big groups. 109 countries in all,many from places where homosexuality is illegal.

I hope the Gay Games and Out Games orgainizers can work together next time to host one big event four years from now. It is a shame this year the Gay Games were mostly American and the Out Games are for the rest of the world.

Cyd if you read this, go the Stock Bar and eat a banana for me? Feel free to bring Banana Boy to Miami for me.Have fun. danny

We are aklready at day 3 of the OG and it is a lot of fun.

the activities at Viger square started 3 days early. There is a wonderfull atmosphere there. The disco show with martha wash , Boule Noir and mado ( the queen of drag queens in MTL was very entertaining.

Went to the opening ceremonies on Saturday. By the time it started , th neplace finally looked full. The speeches were a bit long , and contrary to what somebody elses said , it was mostly english spoken during the ceremony. yess , it was political and the booing was unfortunate for this minister . He said today in the paper that he was going to vote for same-sex marriage when the vote would come back , but still , he was there representing a governement that plans on takuing away rights instead of keeping them. It was not him personnaly that was booed , but the governement he was representing. Mark Tweksbury and martina navratilova read a declaration that was going to be send to the UN about gay rights and equality in the same ceremony ( there was a human rights conference attached to thwe games after all), so if you are part of a political party that advocates that marriage is between a man and a women , you have to be ready to be booed at one of the largest gay and lesbian gathering on the planet.

The entrance of the athletes was very moving , most of them entering in larges groups. A groupe of about 10 contries where homosexuality is criminal enterd the stadium togheter than the crowed cheered them the loudest.

The sound was awfull during the showes ( but even madonna and Mocheal jason sounded bad at the Stadium.

The projections were amazing and the stage impressive.

The show started with martha wash who sang "evrybody Dance now" and It's raining man. This is were the sound was the worst. She was followed by Jonas , a sexy rocker from Montreal who sand "Edge of 17" and one of is own song. Not My cup of tea, but it looked like people enjoyed it.Her was foloowed by Sylvie Desgroseiller , a local singer who started in he Montreal Jubulation gospell Choir and in the gay Bars of Montral. She sung in both English and french , and the crowed finaly went crazy when she sand " I am what I am). She was followed by Diane Dufresne who is a local Diva. She is a bit difficult to explain to non quebecois , but she is the craziest performer I knoe. She was the first ( and sofar only) french singer who sang at the olympic stadium in ashow thatr people are still talking about now. She is always very theatrical and her opening song , la vie en rose , was a wink at her first show at the stadium where she opened the show with that song.
She then sang a Charles Aznavour song that he wrote 40 yeras ago wich is gay anthem for french speaking gay man , about a gay man living with his mother. Diane was wearing a costume that was half man half women.

She wa folloed by Deborha Cox , the Canadan Witney. I dont like her , but the croed did . hes last song was with the Gay Arobics team from Montreal.

Then it was KD's turn and she sang beautifully. She could have dressed for the occasion , but that is beside the point. Very good.

Diane Duresne came back to do onee of her classic , about a little girl going crazy and going to the anusement parc. The Montreal croed ate it up , while I am not sur how the rest of the world took it. For gay man in Montreal , this is the ultimate Diane Dufrene song that everybody is waiting for at the end of the show.


Finaly , Sylvie Desgroseller came back to sing Over the rainbow with 300 members from the chorals that are in Montreal for the games. I think Judy Garland is now worried in her grave that somebody stole the song from her. Amazing!

Throuh out the show, Cirque du Soleil gave performances , with the two muscle man doing hand stuff being the most amazing.

All in all , a grat evening.

yesterday , I was up early to go see my frien swimming the relay with Mark Tewksbury. The won the Silver ina very close race , and managed to beat the canadian record in that event ! We were very exited !

Then went to rowing to see the boyfriend of my swimmers friend brother's row for austarlia. This was there first competition ever and they were very excitd about racing here. They lost , but were very happy nonethe less.

At nitght , it was the Gay Pride parade and it was crazy. Every body followed there instructions well to include a lot of light effect to there floats and the atmosphere was electric.


The media coverage continues to be impressive: first page of every newspaper in town the day after the opening, and everynewshow as many segments about the games and gay pride.

Even away from the village , store made "gay" window display and restaurant have rainbow flags everuwhere.

The tourist did finaly come , contrary to the rports that were given last week. They just did not reserve in the "official" Hothels since they tented to be expensive.

I am off to see my friend swim again !

Thanks for that great feature on my two fellow Romanians, Cyd. If you meet up with them again, suggest their applying to my alma mater, the University of Illinois, as a good school for disabled students. It was a pioneer in ergonomically engineering the whole campus for the disabled before the ADA was enacted and remains in the forefront on accessability terms. Plus it's a great school that embraces almost every academic discipline imaginable. Ask them to tell you about good Romanian food, too - like carnati, mamaliga and lichiu.*
_____
Pro. ker-NATZ, mama-LEAGUE-uh, and le-KEW.

I'm certainly no fan of Stephen Harper and his governing Conservatives, but this was really a no-win situation for the Prime Minister. Even if he had accepted the invitation to the Outgames, he most likely would have been booed anyway, so I'm willing to cut him a bit of slack in this case (but NOT for his refusal to attend an upcoming international conference on AIDS in Toronto; his absence from that is shameful). And while I understand the crowd's animosity towards a government which wants to re-open debate on the same-sex marriage issue, they should have shown more class and courtesy by at least allowing Michael Fortier to speak instead of drowning him out. It's worth noting that Fortier, along with several other Conservative MPs (including at least one from here in Alberta), do in fact support same-sex marriage.

I heard that Réal Menard, an openly-gay MP for the Bloc Québecois, is participating as a wrestler in the Outgames. I was briefly in Montreal a few weeks ago (unfortunately too early for the Outgames) and I was surprised at the lack of advance publicity/signage; maybe because at the time, the downtown area was more focused on the Just for Laughs/Juste pour Rire Comedy Festival. However, it appears now that the Outgames have begun, the city has embraced the events. I wish I could say the same for TSN and Sportsnet... wink

I caught part of the opening ceremonies on the French-language TV channel here. Glad to see my fellow Albertans Mark Tewksbury and k.d. lang with a high profile at the Outgames...loved lang's performance of Miss Chatelaine, and Celine Dion's warm support for the Outgames. Good luck to all participants and I hope that anyone from Outsports who is attending has a great time.

After the booing incident at the opening ceremony, columnist writes in his blog:

"Les Outgames ne sont qu'une mauvaise copie de la formule des Jeux olympiques. Pire encore, ils en sont une caricature. L'Olympisme a réussi le tour de force de réunir, pendant deux semaines, des athlètes de toutes les nations. On ne hue pas les personnalités aux cérémonies d'ouverture des Jeux. On ne conspue pas les athlètes, quelque soit le pays qu'ils représentent.

En huant copieusement le ministre conservateur - Michael Fortier - samedi soir, les organisateurs et les participants aux Outgames se sont déshonorés. Pour deux raisons...

Le gouvernement fédéral n'est pas le monstre qui veut bannir les relations - ni même l'union - entre personnes de même sexe. Tout ce que Stephen Harper a promis, c'est de faire tenir un vote libre aux Communes pour déterminer si une majorité de députés veulent rappeler la loi autorisant le mariage entre couples de même sexe.

Et la preuve que ce vote sera libre - c'est la deuxième raison - c'est que le ministre en question se dit ouvertement favorable au mariage des couples de même sexe.

Certains jugent que les participants aux Outgames de Montréal n'ont pas toujours de très belles manières. Moi je dis qu'ils ne savent pas vivre..."

The Outgames are a bad copy of the Olympics formula. At Olympics you don't boo people at opening ceremonies or athletes from wherever they come.

In Booing Fortier organizers and participants disgrace themselves. For two reasons: the federal government is not a monster who wants to ban same-sex unions; Harper promised a free vote to determine if they are going to recall the marriage law. Second Fortier says he is fro same-sex marriage.

Outgames participants don't know how to behave.

Yea, I agree. If the government of Canada was kind enough to send a representative, I think we should applaud that, not make a rude political statement.

I will just finish on the booing incident to say that what we saw was democracy in action...


Enough about that !

i went to see my frien swim this afternoon at olympic pool.It was the 200 meter breast stroke and my friend collected the silver medal Yeeeeee !!!

The stand , while not full , had a lot of cheering fans. it was very exiting. Ouside , by the olympic tower was a small OG village with store and restaurants ( my ham and cheese crepe was very good, and the cook told me he was doing brisk business !) A lot of tables with a lot of constestant looking at the giant screen showing scenes from the previous day of competition and of the teams before they entered the stadium on opening night. The atmosphere was very nice and hot. Weater wise , today was not too bad , but it will be 32 celsius tomorow...ouch !

Well Ontario athletes made up for the booing of Fortier at the opening ceremonies by giving his colleague Cabinet Minister John Baird a warm welcome at the reception put on for Ontario athletes at Viger Square. There was a great turnout of well over 200 of the athletes from Ontario plus special guests including much of the GLISA executive, and members of the Outgames team - including Madame Louise Roy - CEO of the Outgames, and Mark Tewksbury - who won a silver in swimming.

The overwhelming sentiment of anybody I talked to - be it athletes, GLISA staff or Outgames staff - was that things were going incredibly well. Everybody seems to be having an absolutely amazing time! Viger Square is incredible. It tops anything I've seen in terms of a 'village' for participants at any previous event. The Dutch have their corner in Holland Gardens with daily shows. The main stage has all kinds of great entertainment for about 5 hours each evening. There was some great East Coast of Canada type music playing earlier this evening. One of my teammates - Dan - couldn't help but start stomping to the tunes. It must be the Maritimer coming out in him! They also invite medal winners on stage to be acknowledged for their achievement. It really is a lot of fun and just a great place to spend a couple of hours each day!

Even along Ste Catherines street - (a major street) which is completely blocked off to cars for the entire week for about a 1.5KM or 3/4 of a mile stretch, they have a giant TV screen set up that is showing highlights from various venues. There always seems to be a good crowd watching.

Media coverage continues to be extensive. Over 4 pages of stories in today's La Presse.

I had a chance to talk to both Mark Tewksbury and GLISA Executive Director Rachel Corbett at the Ontario reception and both were absolutely glowing and obviously thrilled with just how well everything is going. And Rachel let me in on a fairly significant announcement regarding GLISA that will be made at the closing ceremonies. It is wonderful news for the growth of GLBT sport! Sorry but I don't want to steal GLISA's thunder, you'll just have to wait until Saturday.

Since my division of volleyball does not start play until Wednesday - I have one more night to have some fun - which is virtually impossible to not have in this city. It seems the hot spot tonight will be the USA party at Sky.

A demain!

Pat

I've been reading the Outsports coverage of the Out Games with much enthusiasm. Wish I were there, but I chose the Gay Games instead. Since the Outsports crew was also in Chicago, I enjoyed the comparisions between the two events. Keep up the good work!

Anh
Gay Sex and Advanced Calculus
http://reflexblue.blogspot.com/

Okay, every good event has to have a bad aspect to it. While I'm estatic to get results daily from the Outgames, someone needs a lesson in doing web results. It is a pain to drill down to get the results. Great website but the results pages suck wind. Copenhagen/GLISA, observe Beijing and learn how to do a multi-sport results section.

It's almost like hunting needles in haystacks to get to decent results. Don't get me wrong. There are parts that I like but you don't get off without SOME criticism.

Regarding th booing of the Feds,

I offer no apologies. Any politican who attacks my family and tries to take my rights away deserves no respect from me. Every person in that stadium has a right to respond the way they want. (after all this was not a George Bush election event) I am proud that I booed and I would do it again!

Having an amazing time, hockey is going great, although I am partying a little too much. So far the Outgames have exceeded my expectations - I didn't even mind not having seats at the opening ceremonies!

The photos and stories with the Outgames were some of the best work I've seen on the web site, up there with Patricia Warren's writing and documentaries. Good professional work Cyd and others.

A short edited video of the Opening Ceremonies is available on the Outgames home page (presently in the upper right, "Extracts from the Opening Ceremony").

My frien won a gold medal yesterday in the relay at the olympic pool !

Surprise surprise ! His picture is in Outports this morning ! On the firts page of pictures from swimming , he is swimming_19.jpg.

On writter in La Presse , a major french newspaper in is having everything roight about the OG. If you read french , go see his reporting at http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20060802...01/CPACTUALITES

I tried to bablefish it but it made no sense.

What he said about attendance was very interesting: he say that he attend a lot of pro cycling events , and a lot of pro track and field , and that there is no one showing up but the parents of the athletes, so it is not surprising to find so few in attendance.

To answer about the report of the CBC , I was at swimming on sunday and a few hundred people were watching. The reportes talk about the 1500 meter , wich is 30 lenghts ! it is quite boring to watch , especially the first ones to go , the slowest. And this was early morning , on sunday after the opening ceremonies...most gay people are sleepimg at this time !

I dont know hoe to edit my post, but I meant that I was at swimming on monday ( as well as sunday) and that the CBC is reporting about sunday when they say that there was only 70 people in the stands !

I am really surprised how few teams are participating and how uneven is the competition in some events at the OutGames. This story explains it in English much better than I am able to do. lopsided OutGames basketball competition

So there is 1 team
They go into semi-finals with 5-0 record. And it looks like many of the players on this team are straight.

I agree with the idea of inclusion but what is the point of a Gay tournament where one team is made of straight "former stars" from college teams, who is sure to win the gold medal? I don't get it.

I will attemp an answer...

If we decide that those games are inclusive , they are. There is no halfway point , no "show me your gay card". I would event venture that those straight players could be ambassador in the straight world , for amateur teams not to be so scare to play against gay teams , and that it is going to be all right if one of the team mate is gay.

If we say , everybody is welcome , then , everybody is , and we dont start a "dont ask dont tell" policy like what is happening in the " staight sport world". This change will come through us and through teams like this team that are going to say : we just want to play the game !

And if the USA teams would have shoed -up , the competition would have been more intense I guess. !

[ August 02, 2006, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: SportsGuy22 ]

I lost a doubles match to a gay/straight team and the straight guy, in his early 50's couldn't have been any nicer. He was very friendly during the match and we talked on change overs about his recent trip to Hawaii. They were both great guys and offered us a beer after they beat us. Not bad and I think a great experience for him, and us.

Wednesday morning my 'C' division volleyball - finally started. 'B' and 'C' are scheduled for Wednesday thru Friday. AA, A and BB took place Sunday - Tuesday earlier this week. Overall I guess there were something like 160 volleyball teams! One of the most popular sports here.

This morning as Cyd mentioned we had to wait an extra hour to start, as some wild overnight thunderstorms had caused problems with the power at the Claude Robillard Centre and the lights did not come on until about 9. We were supposed to start at 8. Very good venue for volleyball though with VERY high ceilings. One gym with 4 courts where 'C' division is playing and 6 courts over on the other area where 'B' are playing. I suspect the air conditioning was out with the lights, so the first few games we played were a bit of a challenge for me setting. Everybody was sweating so much that the ball was like it was lubed! On more than one occassion the ball just slipped right off my hands. The situation seemed to improve a bit as the day went on.

We did manage to win 4 of the 6 games we played and the only two we lost were incredibly both by at 27-26 score! So we're very pleased as we head into the second day today.

The neat thing about the venue is that it is all in the same complex as a bunch of other sports. So when we had a break between games we were able to watch some of the track which was taking place just east of the volleyball gyms. There is softball (women were playing today) just behind the venue. The pool where diving and waterpolo is taking place is just to the west side of the volleyball gyms - all in the same building. So at one point this afternoon when the tower diving was going on, there were probably close to 800 people watching. Some of those outside spectators, but a lot of the people watching were track athletes and volleyball players who had meandered on over to watch.

We met a great team from Adelaide and we had dinner with them last night. Then went to the volleyball party at Sky. Many of the 1400+ volleyball players were there, so that was a lot of fun.

One thing that is great about what Montreal has done here is that Outgames signage or ads are everywhere. It seemed almost every metro (subway) stop had Outgames ads. The Claude Robbillard Centre had huge Outgames banners everywhere. Multiple banners along the walls of the pool, the gyms, the track, the outside of the entire complex etc. Plus they had some concession tents set up with decent (although pricey) food, with two big screens showing various highlight packages from other events yesterday. Which combined with being able to watch the other sports like track and diving certainly helped kill the time between our own games.

So let's see what day two of volleyball will bring.

FYI - they have some great photographers covering all the sports here where you can buy large prints of the photos. This link is the photos taken during one of our games. (We're in the yellow - I'm # 7.

http://www.groupevisionsport.com/montreal2...do?oiEquipe=437

I loved the amazing story of Trent Hagler, to come back to track again at a late age. What a great Gay Games history he has!

Pat, what volleyball team are you on?

In an earlier post there was reference by Pat to 160 volleyball teams and 1,400 volleyball participants.

I think this may be a little high as the schedules show there to be 97 teams (around 970-1,000 players, right?).

16 women
28 men's C
28 men's B
16 men's BB
9 men's A
97 total

Montreal volleyball schedule: Montreal volleyball schedule

How do you get 160 out of 97?!

Pat? You there, help us out here.

I totally forgot...I wanted to remind all you American sports fans who were in Montreal for the games, to try and check out the Montreal Alouettes CFL game...to see the Canadian version of football up close (Game happened yesterday)

I have heard of the CFL, isn't that where banned NFL criminals get their second (or third, or fourth) chance?

*Darn, Montreal played the Argonauts too!

[ August 04, 2006, 01:01 PM: Message edited by: softballstud ]

That's it. The game was one-sided, Montreal won 31-7. Toronto scored only near the end of the fourth quarter.

In Cyd's games notebook, he quoted an article on straights. The guy won a gold in 100m race.

Today I also read the man who finished first at the triathlon is also straight.

And in The Gazette about in line skating:

Hey Cyd:
I'm on Slam. And Wednesday was our only good day. Lost 5 of 6 yesterday and then lost in two straight games in single elimination today. We still had fun though and my legs and feet probably could not have lasted many more games anyways. I'm feeling every one of my 46 years today! Lots of fun though. We played teams from Edmonton, Calgary, Amsterdam, Adelaide, Melbourne and Bulgaria!

As for volleyball participant numbers - I apologize the numbers I previously mentioned were wrong. I haven't been looking at any official listings or schedules, I was just going by what somebody from Adelaide said at dinner on Wednesday night. I think he may have included the beach volleyball teams as well. Sorry about that!

So just closing ceremonies and closing party left to go for my Outgames. But of course throw in the fact that I've got a lot of friends arriving in town today from Toronto who will want to add in all the insane fun related to Montreal's Pride and it is clearly time for me to soak in the hot tub to see if I can get my feet and legs to loosen up a bit to carry me through all the weekend fun!

[ August 04, 2006, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: Travelpat ]

I returned yesterday from my 3-4 day Outgames experience, and I must say I am convinced. The Outgames/Gay Games concept is terrific, and I wish these event the greatest success. I only hope that more LGBT people are able to experience the range of activities, sports, music, entertainment, culture and people that such events feature. Like going to your first Pride Parade, it's an eye-opening experience.

I'll save my criticisms for a different thread, here I'll note the positives.

- Montreal was in fine form. I've been to Montreal several times over the past 15 years and the economy seems to have brightened. I remember seeing innumerable "A louer" (For rent) signs on storefronts in the past, but the city was positively bustling, not just with gay people, but with tourists of all stripes, families with kids, young and old.

- Returning to Toronto yesterday I was walking up Yonge St. and thinking what a dump it was compared to the shopping part of rue Ste-Catharine. The Gay Village was packed with people night and day, and yet the scene was never so extreame that you wouldn't see (straight) families with kids in strollers taking in the sights. Again, light years better than Toronto.

- The sports were fun to watch, with some of the venues like Claude Robillard offering a diversity of sports: track, soccer, softball, volleyball, karate, diving, water polo... virtually within sight of each other. That some events were at the same facilities used by the Olympics (swimming, rowing) or other international events (the marathon was the same route as the Montreal Marathon), made everything seem more "real."

- I enjoyed one of the choral performances, a paid event ($15) that drew a virtually full house (845 seat theatre) on the night I went. The audience was enthusiastic and the host was cute--speaking both English and French, and offering little games in his speeches (the audience was to say "ding" whenever part of his speech included a song title.) I also saw a free noon hour choral performance at Square Viger.

- The photo service seemed like a great idea. Athletes and teams could order photos and have them printed on site.

- The Dutch were the most notable with their orange shirts. It was sweet to see same-sex couples holding hands--not just in the Village, but on subways and along the city streets.

- Saw gay visitors at some of the non-gay tourist sights that I went to, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Botanical Gardens and Mount Royal. Nice to know that people didn't just go there to party, but were interested in culture, as well.

- There was good local media coverage of the Outgames, and extensive promotion of the event throughout the city. Nationally, though, I think it was much less good.

- I was surprised at the amount of English I heard. Never did I have to use my terrible high school French. Montrealers were incredibly hospitable in adapting to the visitor, rather than making the visitor adapt to them.

For a first-time event, Outgames organizers did a great job.

Merci, Montreal! And hello (sorry, don't know Danish) Copenhagen!





Mark your calendars: August 1-8 Copenhagen2009.org