Beach V'Baller Gay Games Ambassador

Leigh-Ann Naidoo, who in 2004 was a member of the first African team to compete in beach volleyball at the Olympic games, has become the first African member of the Gay Games Ambassadors, an international group of prominent individuals supporting the goals and principles of the quadrennial Gay Games.

“Beach volleyball has grown incredibly in the last 10 years and is making its Gay Games debut next year in Chicago, so I’m very happy to be a spokesperson to help promote next year’s competition”, Naidoo said. “But, really, I’d support the Gay Games anyway because it’s been a wonderful, life-changing event for thousands of people in the LGBT community and their friends”.

Leigh-Ann and her teammate Julia Willand finished an excellent international career at the Athens Summer Olympic Games last year. Their 19th place result was lower than they had hoped but Greece was nevertheless a wonderful place to mark the end of one chapter of their lives and move on to the next. Since Athens, Leigh-Ann moved to Chicago with her life partner Kelly Gillespie, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago. The couple also has a home in Cape Town.

While Kelly studies, Leigh-Ann coaches volleyball and maintains her own fitness. She hopes to return to international competition but is now looking for a new teammate as Julia has retired and is expecting a child.

“I took a year off but have started training again recently and will start competing sometime soon”, said Naidoo. At age 29, she is relatively young in a sport in which many people do not peak until their mid-30s.

Leigh-Ann showed athletic talent from her junior school years when she participated in sports as diverse as netball, athletics (javelin, shot put and discus), tennis, soccer and softball before training as a volleyball specialist. Her 1976 birth year was when South African race riots signaled the beginning of a major resistance against apartheid. Her father, Derrick, was president of South Africa’s first non-racial volleyball organization, a group that created the first opportunity for black children to play the sport Leigh-Ann herself came to love.

Growing up in a so-called “coloured” neighborhood, Leigh-Ann’s athletic opportunities were limited under the apartheid system until 1994, her senior year in high school and the year South Africa’s first non-racial democratic elections marked the beginning of permanent racial integration. From that point, black and white athletes together represented South Africa at international competitions.

It was also the year Leigh-Ann began her first relationship, with a volleyball teammate, which lasted seven years. However, she kept her personal life out of the public eye and, in fact, to most people she knew.

The next year, 1995, Leigh-Ann herself led the South African student volleyball team at the World Student Games in Fukuoka, Japan. She became the youngest person on South Africa’s senior national team at the All Africa Games. She continued to represent South Africa at various levels until she graduated in 1998.

Making the transition to beach volleyball was a challenge. In regular volleyball, players can specialise and rely on skills from other teammates. But in beach volleyball each player must possess all skills and partnership is paramount, requiring effective communications at all times.

Despite initial challenges of different racial backgrounds and sexual orientations, Leigh-Ann and Julia learned to be true teammates both on and off the court. With little financial support from their nation’s sporting establishment, they launched their own fundraising campaign, designed their own training program and began competing on the FIVB world tour, where they played two hectic but fun-filled seasons.

North American coaches dubbed Leigh-Ann and Julia the “team of the season” in 2003, and the duo finished as high as 9th at a tournament in Indonesia. They placed 17th at the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, a fine result for their first international season. The next year they improved and placed as high as 5th at an FIVB tournament in Italy.

Qualifying for the Olympics brought Leigh-Ann into the public eye more than ever before at home, and she decided the best way to deal with media questions about her life was to be completely open. Among other interviews, Leigh-Ann spoke frankly for an article published in a South African gay magazine. She talked about her commitment to the community at large and, in particular, to her partner, Kelly.

Leigh-Ann’s mother Venetia and Kelly traveled to Athens to support her participation as one of the few out Olympians in 2004. Leigh-Ann says the support of her family and friends is in keeping with the changes she has seen in her country while growing up.

“I’m very proud of South Africa’s progressive constitution”, said Naidoo. “The LGBT community has won some important legal battles lately and the climate is increasingly positive for human rights in general”.

Meanwhile, during her temporary stay in the United States, Leigh-Ann is finding it easy to enjoy her sport in Chicago, which is high praise from someone considered an icon on the legendary beaches back home in Cape Town. “I’ve just spent the last five days playing at the beach”, she said. “I had no idea beach volleyball was so huge in the Chicago area. Hollywood Beach, the local gay beach, has soft sand that reminds me of the beautiful beach sand back home. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to sit in between games under a large tree right next to the courts.

“It’s also great to play at North Avenue Beach and have this beautiful body of water on the one side and the majestic Chicago skyline on the other. That’s going to be an incredible venue for beach volleyball next year at the Gay Games”.

The Gay Games Ambassadors program was started prior to the 2002 Gay Games VI in Sydney. Charter members were actor Judith Light, Olympic gold medal swimmer Bruce Hayes, former U.S. Ambassador James Hormel, and photographer Tom Bianchi. The Gay Games Ambassadors now also include cycling champions and Olympic medalists Petra Rössner and Judith Arndt, former U.S. professional football players Dave Kopay and Esera Tuaolo, tennis legend Billie Jean King, rock star Melissa Etheridge, actor/director Amanda Bearse, powerlifter Chris Morgan, former professional baseball player Billy Bean, champion figure skater Rudy Galindo, and Olympic trampoline medalist Ji Wallace.

“Leigh-Ann has already been an enthusiastic supporter of the Chicago Gay Games organisers and we welcome her to the Ambassadors program”, said Federation of Gay Games co-president Roberto Mantaci. “In her volleyball career representing South Africa, she has traveled the world, from Mozambique to Finland, from China to Egypt. She is a great role model for everyone, young and old alike”.

For information about the Federation of Gay Games, go to www.gaygames.org. Gay Games VII takes place in Chicago from July 15-22, 2006. For information about the Chicago Gay Games, including details about how to register, go to www.GayGamesChicago.org.