Cyd Zeigler

It’s been a while since USA men’s basketball stood atop the international-competition basketball world, but on top they are now after a 118-107 win over Spain in the gold-medal game in Beijing. LeBron James said after the game that it may go down as “one of the greatest Olympic games ever.” I can’t wait to […]

It was disappointing to see NBC not mention anything about Matthew Mitcham's sexuality. The biggest reason for me is a journalistic reason: It's a big story. The only openly gay male athlete in Beijing pulled off one of the great upsets at the Olympics in a spectacular fashion. If he had had cancer, or if […]

That was a question we touched upon in my gays in sports media panel at the NLGJA Convention this morning just after Mitcham won gold. They didn’t mention it Friday night during the semis. But for them to not mention that the only publicly out male athlete in Beijing won a gold medal would be […]

In one of the biggest upsets at the Beijing Olympics, out diver Matthew Mitcham won a gold medal in the 10m platform. The Chinese were heavily favored in the event, and Mitcham was behind Zhou Luxin by about 35 points going into the final dive. But Mitcham hit an unbelievable score of 112.10 on his […]

Just a quick note to let everyone know about a panel I’m hosting Saturday morning at the NLGJA Convention in Washington, D.C. The discussion will revolve around gay issues in the sports media: Gay reporters in the locker room, asking the gay question of athletes, etc…. We’ve got a great panel with ESPN‘s LZ Granderson, […]

Former Olympic athlete Lauren Meece, who competed in Judo in 2000, is angry about some perceived push by gays to get Olympic athletes to come out, and she wants gays to shut up. She wrote a column for the Express Gay News: The GLBT community should let gay athletes deal with gay issues off of […]

Out Australian diver Matthew Mitcham has qualified for the semifinals in men’s 10m platform diving, finishing second in the preliminary round, missing the top seed by just over 30 points. Both American divers, Thomas Fincham (7th) and David Boudia (6th), have also qualified. Whereas Mitcham barely made the semifinals of the 3m springboard and failed […]

It’s tough enough running a 200m race against the best sprinters in the world, and it’s hard enough to do it in 85-degree weather. But to have to wear a full body suit when everyone else is in shorts and tanktops: borderline cruel. That’s what Bahrain sprinter Roqaya Al-Gassra faced these Olympics, holding to Islamic […]

The New York Giants welcomed my gay flag football team with open arms.

Usain Bolt has done what no other man ever has, winning the 100m and 200m races at the Olympics both in world record time. His time of 19.30 in the 200m was absolutely shocking. Many felt that Michael Johnson’s record of 19.32 would last for decades; instead, it lasted just 12 years. I have the […]

A controversy in synchronized swimming has erupted over the swimsuits of the Spanish team. What’s causing the stir? They want to have lights on their outfits. “It looks a bit like Christmas lights,” Spanish swimmer Andrea Fuentes said. “This is a very conservative sport … their excuse that is you cannot have accessories on your […]

What a thrilling quarterfinal match in women’s volleyball between the U.S. and Italy. The Americans were down 2 sets to 1 after losing the third set badly, 25-19, but they stormed back to win the fourth set and crushed the defending World Cup champions in the tiebreaker, 15-6. The star was Lindsey Berg, who substituted […]

I've chatted with a couple people who say they have Olympics fatigue: That after a week of watching the Olympics every night, they've tired of it. I can understand it. The first week was so extravagant with the opening ceremony, and so dramatic with Phelps' chase, that this week has so far seemed a bit […]

It’s not easy to find much on the Web about Russian volleyballer Yury Berezhko. One of the few tidbits I was able to uncover was that his favorite kind of music is “club music,” which would make him gay in the U.S. but in Europe makes him like just about everybody else. He’s one of […]

I have never been a Rafael Nadal fan, but man is he earning my respect. I always dismissed him as a clay-court wonder, which he was until this year. Now he adds Olympic gold to his 2008 march; and his rival, Roger Federer, doesn't have any Olympic singles medal. Love or hate those cutoffs and […]

Watching Usain Bolt win the 100m sprint in 9.69 was nothing less than breathtaking. The pure speed and acceleration that this guy has – at 6-foot-5 – is like nothing we’ve ever seen. He doesn’t get a great start, which is typical of taller sprinters. But when he starts turning his feet over, his long […]

For the last couple of Olympics, it has started to bug me that so many medals are handed out in swimming. People are falling over themselves to declare Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever, greatest athlete in the world, etc…. I just don’t buy it. Swimming medals are the most watered-down handed out at the […]

Just a little note that I'll be a guest on the Derek & Romaine Show on Sirius OutQ Channel 109 Monday night from 7:15pm-8pmET. If you haven't heard it before, it's a great show, very fun. We'll be talking Olympics for the hour, I'm sure focusing on gymnastics, diving, swimming, track & field, and yes, […]

Tyson Gay, the United States’ best hope in the 100m sprint, is out of the races’ finals after finishing fourth in his heat, missing the third spot by .02 seconds. Because of the U.S.’s stupid way of determining their track & field team, Gay, one of the world’s fastest men, will not compete in the […]

Despite beating Roger Federer for the first time in the Olympic men’s singles quarterfinals, James Blake isn’t one-bit happy. He followed up that win with a loss in the semifinals to 12th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 4-6, 7-5, 11-9. Blake claims, and TV replay confirms, that one of his shots was called long on the […]