InterContinental Life
The Gay Games VIII are being held in Cologne. 12,000 athletes will be taking part. © funnytrunks
“Be part of it!”
The Gay Games VIII are being held in Cologne. 12,000 athletes will be taking part.
Adolf Klöver is 85 years old and the current European champion high-diver for his age group. At the moment, Adolf Klöver, who comes from Bonn, is getting in as much training as he can. He is planning on taking part in the Gay Games VIII, which open on 31st July at the Rhein Energie Stadium in Cologne. Gay Games – So Adolf Klöver is gay? No. He is married – to a woman. There is no better way of illustrating the motto of this cult(ural) event: “Be part of it!” Anyone can take part, whether they are gay, lesbian or heterosexual.
It has been a concept which has seen real success since the games were launched in San Francisco in 1982. The Gay Games take place every four years, with Sydney and Chicago among the hosts before Cologne The idea came from Tom Waddell, an American decathlete who competed in the 1968 Games and later died of AIDS. Approximately 1,350 athletes came to the first games. In Cologne 12,000 are expected to participate. The organisers think the opening ceremony will attract an audience of 34,000. This means the Gay Games is reaching Olympic proportions.
However, there is one essential difference from the more traditional games. There are no national anthems and no medals tables. Participants represent not their countries, but their cities. So Adolf Klöver can show the senior swimmers of Cologne how they do things in Bonn.
The organisational team in Cologne have pulled off two major coups which will attract attention across the country. When they were looking for a patron, they wrote to the German President, Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Köhler and Merkel declined – but Guido Westerwelle agreed and will speak at the opening ceremony. The second coup: Matthew Mitcham, the Australian high-diving gold medallist from the 2008 Olympics, is coming. He is one of very few international top athletes to be openly homosexual.
But there is much more to the Gay Games than the 35 sporting events. The whole city will become a stage for the Games: there will be a choir festival, a band festival and lots of parties and carnivals, all designed to show participants and visitors from home and abroad just what the people of Cologne mean when they say in the local dialect: “Kölle is en Jeföhl” (Cologne is a feeling)
The interview with the Australian Olympic gold medalist in diving, Matthew Mitcham, you can read at the InterContinental Life magazine. Order the InterContinental Life magazin free of charge.
Dates
VIII. Gay Games
31th Juli to 7th August 2010
www.games-cologne.de
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