Olympians, NFL Player New Gay Game Ambassadors

Petra Rossner and Judith Arndt of Germany, Olympic medalists and international cycling stars, have become the latest world class athletes to join the Gay Games Ambassadors Program, officials of the Federation of Gay Games announced today.

"We are both really pleased to get the opportunity to support the Gay Games as Ambassadors," said Arndt, after recently completing several months of training with Nuernberger Versicherung in preparation for the 2005 professional season.

Arndt's and Rossner's sport has been a part of every Gay Games from the beginning in 1982, when cyclo-cross and road races were held.  In July 2006, at Gay Games VII in Chicago, cycling competitions will be held in criterium, mountain biking, road race and time trials.

Already a supporter of the Sydney Gay Games in 2002, Rossner said, "It's our goal to bring the Gay Games to the world's attention, to get more people to know about this event and the whole idea behind the Gay Games.  Knowing that cycling has always been a big part only makes us happier to tell people about the Gay Games."

Rossner, 38, recently ended a 20-year professional cycling career, including 25 German national titles, 10 World Cup victories, an Olympic gold medal in the pursuit at Barcelona in 1992 and a world championship win in the pursuit at Stuttgart in 1991.  She was the World Cup Series Champion in 2002.  Perhaps her most outstanding achievement was winning seven of the last eight editions of the Liberty Classic in Philadelphia.  Recognized as a brilliant tactician, she is now the team director for Nuernberger Versicherung.

Arndt, 28, capped an outstanding 2004 season by winning the gold medal in the Elite women's road race and the silver time trial medal at the UCI world championships.  Arndt's gold was the first win by a German woman in the world championship road race in more than 20 years.

At the Athens Summer Olympic Games two months earlier, Arndt won a silver medal in the women's road race and made headlines around the world for giving a one-finger salute as she crossed the finish line to the German cycling federation for leaving Rossner off the 2004 Olympic team.  It was a gesture of solidarity for a teammate who Arndt believed could have helped propel one of the German cyclists to gold.

That Arndt and Rossner were in a committed relationship at the time was also reported, but Rossner's achievements made Arndt's protest compelling.  Much of the international press printed the fact of their being live-in girlfriends almost as a sidelight to the incident itself, perhaps a sign that merely being gay or lesbian isn't enough in certain sport circles to generate headlines these days.

Arndt and her Nuernberger teammates are in the beginning stages of a season that will culminate in her attempt to defend her 2004 world championship road race title in Madrid this September. She and Rossner continue to work together professionally if not both still racing on the bike. Arndt said, "Petra is our team director now, which seems to be even more work than only pedaling in my eyes."

Both Rossner and Arndt have competed in Chicago and say the city's terrain and experience hosting cycling events will prove favorable for competitors of all skill levels at next year's Gay Games.

"Cycling is our first love, of course, but there is a sport for almost everyone at the Gay Games," said Rossner.  "We can't think of a better goal to set than to get fit and take part in an event that does so much on behalf of the gay and lesbian community around the world."

Dave Kopay Becomes Latest Gay Games Ambassador

(SAN FRANCISCO 18 February 2005) Dave Kopay, the former U.S. professional football player who in 1975
became an LGBT icon with a closet-busting interview in the "Washington Star," has become the latest Gay Games Ambassador, the international Federation of Gay Games (FGG) announced today.

The seventh edition of the quadrennial Gay Games takes place in Chicago from 15-22 July 2006.

"When I came out 30 years ago, the idea of something called 'gay and lesbian' sports was unimaginable," Kopay said. "The Gay Games is directly responsible for inspiring people to stay or become active in sports, encouraging them not to let homophobia get in the way of expressing their love and enjoyment of athletic competitions."

Since his initial 1975 coming-out interview, Kopay has been an outspoken advocate for gay rights. Two years later, he co-authored "The Dave Kopay Story" with Perry Deane Young, a book that topped the "New York Times" bestseller list for weeks and is still so popular it will soon see its fifth printing.

"I'm excited and committed to helping the Federation of Gay Games promote its goals of 'Participation, Inclusion and Personal Best' because I've seen first-hand how the Gay Games experience changes lives," he said. Kopay participated in New York's Gay Games IV in 1994 by presenting the athletes' oath during the opening ceremony and serving as a judge in the physique competition.

Photo by Bonnie Schiffman"There is no athlete more prominent for speaking out on behalf of the gay community during the 1970's than Dave Kopay," said Roberto Mantaci, co-president of the FGG. "When he took the bold step to be the first to talk openly about being gay and how that affected his career in the National Football League, he became a role model for all of us looking to be honest about our lives. We are privileged that he is joining the Gay Games Ambassadors."

Kopay said, "I was born in Chicago and for that reason was particularly pleased to be asked to be the 'Honoured Guest' in Chicago's annual gay pride parade a few years ago. I'm equally honoured to become a Gay Games Ambassador right before such a great city hosts the Gay Games."

Kopay played football at the University of Washington and then went on to a 10-year career in the United States' National Football League as a running back and special teams member for the San Francisco Forty-Niners, the Detroit Lions, the Washington Redskins, the New Orleans Saints, and the Green Bay Packers. Kopay retired in 1973 with a successful career behind him, but he had many conflicted feelings about himself and others he knew to be gay in professional football.

After considerable thought and introspection, Kopay decided it was time for some frank talk about issues of homosexuality, particularly homophobia, in the sports world. Rumours had abounded for decades about athletes in individual sports such as tennis and figure skating, but no prominent figure had been willing to step forward publicly about his or her homosexuality until Kopay. That it was someone from a professional team sport like football who was willing to be the first was nothing short of astonishing.

Few professional athletes followed his lead; several who have come out since are among his fellow Gay Games Ambassadors, such as Esera Tuaolo, who cited Kopay as an inspiration for his own struggles to live openly within the football community.

Today, Kopay lives in Los Angeles and continues making speeches on the importance of living an honest life. His
book has become standard reference material for NFL teams contemplating positive ways to react should one of their players come out publicly. Yet Kopay says the sports world is a place that still has much work to do to combat bigotry against gay men and women, from even the youngest school levels up through professional ranks.

"Regardless of how hard it's been, and how far we have to go, I still very much believe in athletics and sports," Kopay said. "A healthy body contributes to one's happiness and success, but a healthy mind is even more important. And what I have found is that my health and happiness have indeed come by acknowledging who I am.

"The goals and ideals that I speak of -- and have been speaking of since I first spoke out in l975 -- are pretty much the same ideals that the Gay Games stands for. So I am excited to be involved with supporting the Gay Games as one of its Ambassadors."

Kopay is just the latest among an illustrious roster of Gay Games Ambassadors that includes Olympic gold medal swimmer Bruce Hayes, champion figure skater Rudy Galindo, rock musician Melissa Etheridge, former U.S. Ambassador James Hormel, former Major League Baseball player Billy Bean, former National Football League player Esera Tuaolo, tennis legend Billie Jean King, photographer Tom Bianchi, actors Judith Light and AmandaBearse, and world drug free powerlifting championships silver medalist Chris Morgan of England.

Mantaci said, "The support from Dave Kopay for the Gay Games is highly symbolic, given his pioneering role in the gay rights movement three decades ago. The international LGBT sport community should never forget all we owe to the USA in this regard. Our American brothers and sisters started the Gay Games, which gave birth to the global LGBT sport movement, and the United States is still the country where more than anywhere else prominent LGBT sport figures have made their sexual orientation publicly known. That so many of them have expressed their support of the Gay Games by becoming Ambassadors shows their continuing commitment to advancing issues of the LGBT community and sport."

About The Federation of Gay Games

The Federation of Gay Games is the international governing body that perpetuates the quadrennial Gay Games and promotes the event's founding principles of inclusion, participation and personal best. The Gay Games was conceived by Dr. Tom Waddell, an Olympic decathlete, and was first held in San Francisco in 1982 with 1,350 participants. Subsequent Gay Games were held in San Francisco (1986; 3,500 participants), Vancouver (1990; 7,300 participants), New York (1994; 12,500 participants), Amsterdam (1998; 13,000 participants), and Sydney (2002; 11,000 participants).

Registration for Gay Games VII is now open at http://www.gaygameschicago.org/. Information is available in Spanish at http://www.gaygameschicago.org/es/.

For information about how to sponsor or participate in Gay Games VII in Chicago, visit http://www.GayGamesChicago.org, e-mail info@GayGamesChicago.org, or phone (773) 907-2006.