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Outsports Clubhouse: Membership For Gay Sports Fans And Athletes
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Cyd's Opening Ceremony Awards & More
 Politically Speaking: It was cool to see some of the political choices made by Sydney 2002 in the lining up of the nations? athletes. Pakistan marching out of alphabetical order, so they could march with rival India, drew loud applause. Another favorite was the choice to have the aboriginal athletes lead out the Australian contingent - a fitting nod to the people that first settled Australia.
Caught Between Customs and Aussie Stadium: Team Houston got a surprise six days ago from FedEx: the straw hats they sent ahead to Sydney, a key part of their opening ceremony costumes, were quarantined by customs. Team leader Trent Halger, competing in track and physique, spent days trying to figure out a way to get the hats through. Ultimately, the hats were put through radiation to kill any bacteria or germs that might be in the straw, and they were let through on Friday. The hats went from costing $10 apiece to over $30. You can send any charitable donations to Trent at thglr@aol.com
When Pigs Fly: We joked with the team from Cincinnati about the pigs with wings they were wearing on their hats: ?Is that when the Bengals are going to win a game?? While they admitted it was fitting, they detailed Cincinnati?s origins, when it was called Porkopolis because of the pigs that came in and out of Cincinnati.
S-o-c-c-e-r is worth 10 points: The women?s soccer team from Canberra (the capital of Australia) is called ?The Mighty Scrabblers.? The members are a group of women who have been playing Scrabble together for years. A couple years ago they decided to participate in the Games to ?reach their potential through sport,? as team member Kirsten Farrell told us. Heather Reid, a preeminent name in women?s soccer in Australia, gladly helped the women prepare for the Games.
Half of Winning is Just Showing Up: I was reminded on my way to the Opening Ceremonies that everyone at the Games receives a participation medal. While it may seem cheesy, for this event it is not. Many of these participants have battled a lot of crap in the world of sports; yet, they have moved past it and are here in sport and celebration. Just showing up, at this event, is half the battle.
Note to Montreal re: Opening Ceremonies: Learn from a couple of the mistakes this year?s organizing committee made: 1) march the athletes in first so they can see the ceremony first hand; 2) the ?cultural? aspect of the cermony should have something, even a hint, to do with sports.
Cyd?s Opening Ceremony Awards
Best Costumes: I?m going with Houston, who used their state flag and straw hats to create a simple, bold, striking appearance. Runners up: Tonga, Samoa, Netherlands, Boston, Berkeley, and Vancouver.
Cutest City Team: Columbus, OH. I sat behind them at the opening ceremony and I counted four guys who would be on my ?hottest in Sydney? list. Runners up: Los Angeles, Seattle, Norway, Netherlands.
Cutest Sport Team: Seattle Stonewall Soccer (above). Nice smiles, cleancut, friendly, and they wore blue; if I had had a cocktail before the ceremony, I would have invited the whole team for a jacuzzi after the ceremony.
Least Dressed: Singapore. Wearing nothing but tight squarecut red and white briefs, it?s hard to get much less dressed than them. Runners up: Israel.
Most Dressed: Team Colorado was prepared for a blizzard in their heavy jackets; which will be perfect when they get back to . . . Colorado.
Loudest: United States. Duh - with over a third of the participants from the States, chants of ?U-S-A? rang over the stadium walls. Runners up: Australia, Thailand.
Quietest: Denmark. By a landslide, the Danes sat quietly with hands folded while the other cities and countries screamed and cheered.
Quick Hits: Surprising how many people made their first Gay Games trip all the way to Sydney; we?d have thought more would have been turned off by the cost and distance . . . On our third night, the jetlag is pretty much gone . . . One of the big battles at the Games will be to see if anyone can knock off top-rated Los Angeles Heat in the basketball tournament; the San Francisco Rock Dogs, the ?98 gold medalists, have revamped the team and seem poised to make a run . . . NFL games will be broadcast here live at 5am Monday morning; the two games featured: Philly @ Chicago, then San Francisco @ Oakland . . . When y ou ask for cream with your coffee here, you get cream - like, heavy cream; they haven?t discovered half-and-half yet . . . Special thanks to Rvin Ring of Gerildtin, with the aboriginal continengent, who was a pleasure to talk to and filled me in on much of the scoop of his team.
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