AP Closing Ceremonies pics:

[img]http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060722/capt.4751469d65d5431b8ebb5c1490f237aa.gay_games_closing_ilmg105.jpg?x=211&y=345&sig=a17R4ibGIMD2P8D5M0E.1A--[/img] [img]http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060722/capt.a625ef70d5f84403a2e84865dee80e6b.gay_games_closing_ilmg104.jpg?x=380&y=240&sig=6rYdsNITHSQidLhjE4s5dw--[/img] [img]http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060722/capt.fb57e57b2f8844bba4c81edd6c3ba1e5.gay_games_closing_ilmg109.jpg?x=380&y=211&sig=N9ERA5S3BHhKYWTjYkcOrA--[/img] [img]http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20060722/capt.909e442f1f4a4f08862e6644b412db9e.gay_games_closing_ilmg115.jpg?x=380&y=254&sig=.1Vx8IEr6opqwdGMI6RqJQ--[/img]

Posted ours.

Gartenzwerg, FireCharlieManuelNow,and others, you have such great ideas and "creative" criticisms for these volunteers that dedicated their lives for the past 2 years, I assume you are ready to jump in and take over for them for the 2010 games. Am I correct?
If you really think your suggestions coming from the seat of your pants are going to do anything, keep sitting their to find out. Keep telling everyone how easy it would be to fix things and continue to do nothing.

Are you forgetting what happens when you assume?

Thank you for the insightful observations and commentaries from the Gay Games. My events were on eight of the nine days I was in Chicago, so I only saw a few other sports. Reading the info here has given me a broader perspective of the Games.

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

A positive review of the Closing Ceremonies from the Chicago Sun-Times: Lauper closes Gay Games on memorable note

Interesting article from AfterElton.com: Mainstream press fails to medal in coverage of Gay Games

What's I find interesting about the above quotes, is that it's papers in the South or in smaller cities--places you would expect to avoid any Gay Games mentions--that are reporting or reprinting positive articles. Meanwhile the New York Times (an official sponsor), ESPN (an official sponsor), and other big city papers (Boston Herald, for example) seem oblivious to its existence.

Despite the scale (12,000 athletes--more than the Athens Olympics!), big names (performers like Cindy Lauper, former pro athletes like Bean and Tuaolo), politicians (Mayor Daley), corporate sponsors (ESPN, Kraft, Ernst & Young, NY Times, Walgreens, Gatorade), international competition, etc., you would think this event would be covered by the mainstream media in many categories: sports news, business news, life news, gay press, entertainment news.

I googled the Gay Games every day last week, and was pleased to see occassinal reports from a paper in Indiana, or a college paper in Texas, about how their local athletes were faring in Chicago. But it would seem that most of the big, mainstream media still does not take this event--and LGBT athletes, and their stories--serious enough for coverage.

When Ozzie Guillen called that reporter a fag, every media outlet reported it. Yet, despite the fact that last Friday's White Sox game was a "Gay Games Night," I saw no coverage.

"Fag" comments rates every paper in the country, yet 12,000 courageous LGBT athletes from around the world, not to mention the many organizers and volunteers, get so very little respect. How sad.

Where was CNN? Where was Time magazine? Where was the New York Times? Where was Sports Illustrated? Where was National Public Radio? (*I have no knowledge of whether NPR covered the event or not--living in Canada--and perhaps they did). I hope that at least Saturday Night Live did a spoof of the Gay Games. Surely we rate at least that.

Sorry, but the show is in reruns for the summer.

I think you should develop this post into a full-fledged op-ed article for whatever publications might be willing to publish it. You make a number of good points.

Yes, Canmark, write something, send it to us and we'll run it.

Here are the final Men's Open results for softball:

A Division
Gold - LA Team Energy
Silver - North Georgia Bradford Builders
Bronze - Long Beach Rebels

B Division
Gold - Dallas Woody's
Silver - Boston Club Cafe
Bronze - Madison Rough Riders

C Division
Gold - Chicago T'Baggers
Silver - San Francisco Knights
Bronze - Chicago Crew Lightening

Also, here are the Volleyball results:
congrats to the team from Papau, New Guinea for winning GOLD.

Women's B
Gold: Fist of Fury
Silver: La Spirit
Bronze: Golden Girls

Women's BB
Gold: Westech
Silver: Red or Green
Bronze: NY Chix

Women's A
Gold: San Diego
Silver: San Francisco Fusion
Bronze: Chicago Crush

Men's C
Gold: Team Papua New Guinea
Silver: Latino's
Bronze: Delmarva Diva's

Men's B
Gold: Seattle Madison Pub Rainmakers
Silver: The Incredibles (New York)
Bronze: Houston Hustle

Men's BB
Gold: Chicago Untouchable
Silver: Manpower
Bronze: Sacramento Outlaws

Men's A:
Gold: ACA Beach
Silver: Steamwork X-Treme
Bronze: NY Raiders

Men's AA:
Gold: Hermosa Beaches
Silver: San Francisco Raptors
Bronze: Peru Inca Empire.

A bit slower than I would like, results are getting posted to the Gay Games website. The page with all of the links on it is here:

http://www.gaygameschicago.org/sports/home.php

Yes, we are aware that many of the results pages do not include geographic locations (and in a few cases, don't include times). Even though we had a standard template for results reporting, the nature of events run primarily by volunteers that you don't always get what you want. In some cases, also, the results are output from software programs not designed to give geography.

So our priority now is to get the results posted and then to cross reference with registration records to note geography or times where missing. Thanks for your patience.

Kevin

BrianK, in retrospect I can see your point in your's and other Chicagoans aggravation with several of us posting our criticism of the Games. Heck, I can almost see myself in your shoes. I've been on the LOC core team for 2 Olympic Festivals, 3 Final Fours, the US Candidate City for the 2007 Pan Am Games, and numerous other sporting events in San Antonio. I have some experience with large multi-sport events. That being said, I'd be pissed as hell if someone told me what I already knew in the mistakes we made during all those events.

I think we used a discussion forum to do just that - discuss. Unfortunately when you're working your ass off to make it happen that's the last thing in the world you want to hear. So maybe the mix of the two created a rift between those at the Games and those watching from afar (as best we could). My apologies.

It's unrealistic for many of us to dig in and help with the organization of an event outside our city. That only happens when you live in the city. It's really unrealistic to think that would happen in Cologne in 2010.

So here's to an end of the criticism. I only hope FGG notes the deficiencies and takes that up with the 2010 team. Otherwise the Games never get any better. I know the bar set for us by the USOC was pretty high and it was our responsibility to clear it. Let's hope FGG has the same standard of commitment for their future events.

Good work Chicago. Thanks for giving gay and lesbian athletes a place to compete with each other and show the world our talent and athleticism. Looking forward to 2010.

The Sports page shows which results have been posted. Those marked "soon" are still pending. The links are all on page http://www.gaygameschicago.org/sports/home.php

I thought it interesting that the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) would post this news on their website: CAW Member Wins Gold Medal at Gay Games in Chicago

Results from various city teams:

Houston Voice: Houston’s gay athletes win big at Chicago games

Houston athletes won 36 medals in Gay Games VII, with six golds, eight silvers, and 22 bronze medals. Now some of them are headed to compete in the Outgames in Canada.

More than 100 local athletes marched in the July 15 opening ceremony as Team Houston, and they competed last week in events ranging from marathon to bowling.
* * *
Continuing on to Montreal are about 30 Houstonians, of which 15 are Team Houston members.

Southern Voice: ATL athletes bring home

Neither Team Atlanta nor Gay Games officials could provide a total medal count for Atlanta athletes, but local competitors said they brought home both medals and memories from the quadrennial gay sports competition.
* * *
Only 18 of the 13,000 OutGames athletes are from Atlanta, comprising the majority of the 24 people from Georgia registered to compete, according to Post. That compares to the 166 Atlanta athletes registered to compete in Chicago.

Washington Blade: Photo page and Gay athletes head for Montreal

About 12,000 athletes participated in the (Gay Games), 230 of whom were from D.C.

Members of Team D.C., the town’s Gay Games delegation, took home more than 40 medals.
* * *
Minor said the separation had negative repercussions. Athletes from D.C. were divided, with 230 going to Gay Games and another 130 headed to OutGames.



Photo gallery from Chicago Free Press.

Incidentally, we do not provide "medal counts" by state, city, or country. The Gay Games has never done this, though some reporters have done so in the past and many are focused on the Olympic model and so think we should provide that total as well. However, it's not the mission of the Gay Games to pit cities against each other, or countries against each other, so this kind of "medal count" will never be calculated by us.

I haven't found any coverage from the pool/billiards competition, so I guess I'll brag a little...I won the gold for both 8-ball and 9-ball men's recreation division. The entire week was a total blast. My partner and I loved everything about the whole experience, from the great venue to the friendly people of Chicago. We skipped the closing ceremonies, as we were heading to Detroit to visit family, but just can't say enough positive things about our trip. I'm just now reading the coverage Outsports did, as I wasn't near a computer for almost three weeks.

Congrats Rick!

I'll have to make a mental note not to put money on the line if I ever see you shooting pool at Moby Dick's. wink

Yes, congrats Rick Bradford and phillyrunner and the many Outsporters who competed in the Gay Games!

Photos of the medal-winning mens and womens basketball teams at the Gay Games are posted on the National Gay Basketball Association website.

Agh. They still don't have the track and field results posted. All of the other stuff went up in amazingly quick fashion. I wonder what the problem is! eek!

There's no real good excuse for the track & field results for the last day. I just saw a copy of the files with the medalists from that day and they're being reviewed and will post this evening.

Someone from the Gaymes must be reading these posts. Right after I said the track results were in, voila, they appeared!

And Figure Skating is now up. The results have gone up on the website as soon as they've been available in electronic format. The last few straggling results weren't up for pretty simple reasons - the people who had the files took time off and apparently didn't realize they hadn't sent the results. The only thing left to post are the Criterium Results. There are still some sports where hometowns aren't yet provided and volunteers are working to add that info as an FYI to those who are curious. As noted, the Gay Games doesn't calculate medal totals by city, state or country but we know the information is interesting to people so we're adding that detail.

Kevin Boyer

Ok, I’ve viewed hundreds and hundreds of Gay Games photos in the past several weeks, but the following link are some of the best. Very professional shots! Just amazing. Also, be sure to turn up your volume as there are interviews with several athletes.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/flash/slideshow/gaygames/

Paul Bowles, a local Chicago gay athlete, has a fantastic hobby. He takes digital pictures and makes homemade digital movies of local Chicago sports, gay tournaments, and (most recently) his partner's team at Gay Games.

Check out his site: www.pvolley.net

You can see pictures, watch the award ceremony for softball 'C' division and also check out some games.

Enjoy.

[ August 08, 2006, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: Rastuurman ]

Just posted 260 images from a gallery by photographer Ray Bordeaux. Enjoy!

Very cool pictures Jim, THANKS!