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Our golden day:
We have a limited report today since Cyd and I
spent all day playing for the men's competitive
gold medal at flag football, then celebrating
afterwards. We won our semifinal game over the
San Diego Toros, 35-7, then beat the New York
Bad Apples, 26-13, to win the gold, coming back
from a 7-6 halftime deficit. Cyd played through
a very bad calf injury to lead the defense and I
threw three touchdowns at quarterback. The
game's key plays were a 55-yard interception
return for a score by Zach Brott midway through
the second half, and Corey Johnson's catch and
tightrope run down the sidelines for a 20-yard
score with about five minutes left to ice it.
We had an incredible
experience with a wonderful group of players,
including ex-NFLer Esera Tuaolo, who was in
tears at game's end and charmed every player on
every team with his warmth and humanity. Special
props go to tourney director Bill Enright and
head ref Monte (I never got his last name, but
he is awesome), who made the tourney run
smoothly and treated all the teams as special;
they each deserve their own gold medal.
We have lots of notes and photos from various
Gay Games events and will resume our regular
publication later today. -Jim Buzinski
Instant karma's gonna get you.
"I hope [Esera]'s not ashamed to be on the team
that wins the silver [medal], because we're
gonna win it all." – Will Ward, Chicago Flames
quarterback, in USA Today, July 14.
Karma is a funny
thing. It seems to bite you in the ass every
time it has the chance. Not only did Esera's
team win the gold, but Ward's team didn't win a
medal at all. As Jim said to me this morning, if
the local papers covered the Gay Games the way
they cover major mainstream sports, the
headlines in all the papers would be:
"Flame-Out." - Cyd Zeigler jr.
Rain, rain go away.
Lightning threatened to postpone outdoor games
Wednesday afternoon and the rain finally hit
Thursday morning. Games are postponed in various
sports and track & field is cancelled for
Thursday. - CZ
Golden boy.
Former UCLA national champion Brian Fell is
tearing up the track again. He's got three gold
medals in three events, and he now has his
sights set on not just equaling the five golds
he won in Sydney, but surpassing them. Rain and
lightning have cancelled track for Thursday, so
Friday will be a hectic day. Brian will be
running the 100-meters, 200-meters and 4x400 all
on Friday. - CZ
Cooling
off at Ice Hockey.
Taking a break from the heat, I escaped into the
Heartland Ice Arena to watch women’s ice
hockey. I was looking forward to seeing some
Canadian hockey - the Northern Lights from
Vancouver were due to play at 11:20 a.m.
The arena was
refreshingly cool, but achingly sparse. Where
were the crowds? The thirty or so spectators
seemed comprised of other teams who had just
played or were about to play.
In keeping with
the Gay Games chaos, I discovered that schedule
had been tossed around like salad and nobody was
saving me any dressing Contrary to what was
posted on the website, the Northern Lights had
finished an hour ago.
Instead, I
watched the Coast to Coast Stars beat the
Evanston Tigers, 2-1.
If medals were
awarded for the most creative jersey, the Coast
to Coast Stars would win the gold hands
down. Each player chose a favorite female icon
to silkscreen on the front of her jersey. Some
players selected cartoon characters, others
chose movie stars.
“I chose Batgirl
because she’s the first lesbian superhero,” said
Liz.
“I chose Angelina
Jolie. She’s hot” added Tracy of Illinois.
Jen from Madison
chose a progressive journalist as her
silk-screened hero:
“I chose
Amy Goodman, she is an incredible journalist and
has a radio show on Democracy now…she stands for
peace and open media. So I think we all need to
be open to listening to all points of view."
- Ronit Bezalel
Gay
Games Gripes. Today’s
Chicago Sun Times made note of the Gay Games
lack of organization and spotty attendance. I’m
sure the blistering heat has something to do
with the crowds. And while I understand the
event is volunteer-driven, I wish there was a
clearer schedule posted on the Web. I still
cannot decipher which events happen at what
times. - Ronit Bezalel
Gimme
Water! On Wednesday I
competed in the Off-Road Biking Competition. I
want to thank the organizers, as I know they put
in a lot of hard work to make this happen. It’s
not easy coordinating something like this, and
for the most part it flowed smoothly. My only
complaint was that there was no water or
Gatorade available on-site. It would have been
nice to drink some liquids after riding 11 miles
in the brutal sun. -
Ronit Bezalel
Help!
The softball final schedule is now posted on the
Gay Games website, but it doesn’t seem of any
use. I don’t see dates, times or locations. Is
it me or is this document impossible to read?
- Ronit Bezalel
Chunky
Gold. Congratulations
are in order to Chris Morgan, the British
Powerlifter who won four gold medals. -
Ronit Bezalel
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