Category: Sport
-
Varsseveld Hippisch Festijn
I spent an hour this morning watching the cross-country event of the Varsseveld Hippisch Festijn. The course crossed the path I take when walking the dog in the woods, so I positioned myself there and took some shots of the horses and their riders. A couple of examples are shown below, the rest can be seen here on Flickr.
-
Another Reason Not To Ski
I’ve never learnt to ski. I don’t really see the point of doing something that I can only do once a year for a few days at enormous expense and at some risk to life and limb. It’s probably cheaper – and certainly a good deal safer – to shred a bundle of euros and flush them down the loo.It also means that I don’t have to be confronted with a sign like this on the way to the slopes and spend time wondering, with a horrified fascination, what, precisely, it’s trying to tell me. -
Doing The Time Warp
So, what’s with the 70’s Disco music soundtrack to the Winter Olympics parade of the athletes? I could swear I was back in Bang disco, dancing my poor little heart out. Ah, the dear departed days of youth. Personally, I think it just proves that today’s pop music is unadulterated crap… -
The Opening of the Winter Olympics
So, I’m sitting here, watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, courtesy of BBC2. And there’s a bloody audio commentary telling me in lumpen detail what’s going on. Excuse me, I want to experience it, not feel as though I’m sitting next to an idiot on a mobile phone talking to his bloody mother.Please, for the love of god, SHUT THE FUCK UP!I’m sorry, I want to kill this person. Please excuse my lapse. -
Hanif and Amir
I confess, the sport of boxing is an oxymoron to me. I have never liked it, and watching the reactions of the crowd is, to me, even more disturbing than watching two people box. I don’t know where this reaction of mine comes from – my parents loved to watch boxing on TV.Anyway, all of this is a preamble to an excellent interview in the Observer today between Hanif Kureishi, the writer, playwright and director, and Amir Khan, the young boxing sensation from the last Olympics. It’s worth reading. -
Cologne in 2010
Cologne will host the Gay Games in 2010. That’s good, by that time we’ll be living just over an hour’s drive away from the city… I hope it will be as good as Amsterdam was in 1998. -
Beautiful Boxer
Fascinating article in the Guardian today about Parinya Charoenphol. Her life story has been made into a film: Beautiful Boxer. While I personally find boxing and kickboxing loathsome sports, I do want to see the film. It documents Charoenphol’s journey from being a poor village boy overcoming his timidity to become a famous kickboxer – but only so that he could earn enough money for a sex change. Life is often stranger than fiction. -
A Sub-Editor’s (Wet) Dream
There’s a sub-editor in ESPN who’s feeling very pleased with himself (it’s bound to be a him) for having thought up this headline. And, I confess, it’s not a bad effort at all… -
I’m Glad I Don’t Live in London Anymore
Because London has just won the golden albatross. The residents of London’s boroughs are going to be paying for years to come while the rest of the country are going to lose out. As usual, Justin hits the nail on the head. -
Tomorrow is Mad Sunday
I grew up on the Isle of Man. As well as Manx cats, the island is also famous for being the home of the TT (Tourist Trophy) races. This coming week, the annual TT races will be held on the island.
Tomorrow is Mad Sunday, when a large proportion of the 40,000 visitors (the island’s population is only 70,000) to the event will take to their motorcycles and ride around the racecourse. But this is not a specially-built racetrack – the course is run over ordinary roads. The course runs for almost 38 miles, and is extremely dangerous – if you come off the road, you are likely to have your speed stopped dead (literally) by a stone wall or a telephone pole. These days, everyone taking part in Mad Sunday has to go round the course in the same direction. A sensible development – at one time, people could ride around in either direction, with the inevitable result of accident carnage.
Every year, riders taking part in the races are killed – but presumably they know the risks, and no-one is forcing them to take part. And with the advance of motorcycle technology, the race is getting faster all the time. I grew up in the 1950s, when riders such as Geoff Duke were doing laps with an average speed of under 100 mph. Geoff Duke almost broke the 100 mph average speed barrier when in 1956 he did a lap at 99.97 mph. In 1967, Mike Hailwood set a speed record that would last until 1975 when he did a lap at an average speed of 108.77 mph. The current lap record stands at 125.69 mph.
Remember, these are average speeds – that means that on parts of the course (such as the Sulby Straight), speeds of the bikes will reach up to 180 mph.
I recall growing up when "doing the ton" – that is, riding your bike at a speed of 100 mph – was seen as a rite of passage, and an achievement. And certainly, the first (and last!) time I did it on my own 650cc Kawasaki, it was both scary and exhilarating. But the superbikes of today are capable of almost twice that speed… I’m glad I don’t have to prove my manhood today.
-
London’s Olympic Bid
Today, London receives a visit from a 13-strong Olympic inspection team to examine the city’s bid for the Olympics on 2012. I was amused to read that the proposed site for the beach volleyball event is Horse Guards Parade. In the immortal words of Victor Meldrew: "I don’t belieeeeve it!" Quite what our dear queen will make of it all, I hesitate to think…
-
The Gay Games: 1998
The first week in August 1998 saw the holding of the fifth Gay Games. And, for the first time, the Gay Games was held outside of North America. This time, Amsterdam was its home for one remarkable week, even by the standards of this city.
The first Gay Games was an initiative taken by the late Dr.Tom Waddell, participant in the Olympic Games in Mexico. From the first Games, which attracted 1,300 participants, the scale and popularity has steadily grown. Amsterdam had 14,299 participants and 250,000 spectators – one of the largest sporting and cultural events in the world.
Amsterdam Canal Parade
The day of the official opening of the Games coincided with Amsterdam’s third annual Gay Canal Parade, where carnival floats literally do just that.
This was the official boat for the Gay Games. The two rainbow towers went up and down, and raised and lowered the yellow flag of the Games. In the background you can see the Amsterdam Opera House – the Stopera. This, and the area around it, became Friendship Village for the week of the Games.
Royal Dutch Airlines – KLM – was a major sponsor of the Gay Games, so what more justification was required for GayLM – the “Legs in the Air Line”. And, of course, there were passing royal visitors…
Ancient and Modern…
And just to prove that we shouldn’t take anything for granted in August, it rained for part of the time…
Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony of the Games was held at the Amsterdam ArenA. The entry of the participants (all 14,299 of them!) was both joyful and stirring, every last one of them being cheered and clapped by some 30,000 spectators. What was also striking was the number of countries represented by the participants – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Sobering to realise also that in many of these countries, gays and lesbians are persecuted – up to and including capital punishment.
There’s been quite a lot of discussion over why we should have a “Gay Games” – some have said that it is separatism, when we are simultaneously seeking integration with society at large. While I can see some small justification for this view, to my mind it is swept away by the fact that we should celebrate our diversity, particularly in the light of the continuing existence of prejudice and persecution. The positive feelings that the opening ceremony ignited in the hearts and souls of those of us present are sparks that I’m sure we will carry back to our respective communities. As Harvey Fierstein said, to ringing cheers, “We are not different, we are extraordinary!” His speech that night was truly magnificent – reminding us that the journeys that we made by train, boat and plane to get to Amsterdam were short in comparison with the journeys in our souls to reach this place. “We were carried here on the backs of the millions of gays and lesbians that went before us… some of whom paid for the struggle against prejudice with their very lifeblood.”
I was impressed too by the speeches (at both the opening and closing ceremonies) made by Schelto Patijn, the Mayor of Amsterdam at the time. He epitomised the strong support given by the wider community of Amsterdam for this event. He rightly deserved the applause he received on both occasions.
And then there was the music and dancing… The 200 sailors stripping to the Weather Girls “It’s Raining Men”; Dana International, Mathilde Santing (now apparently christened as “the Dutch Diva”).
The Competitions
A friend of ours, Jim Atkinson, was taking part in the weightlifting competition at the Gay Games. On Sunday, 2nd August, I went along to watch some of the competition, and give moral support…
Jim with Chris Morgan on the right. The end result – Silver and Bronze medals! Well done, Jim! You can see the results for all the sports at the Gay Games web site here.
Closing
The participants once again marched into the ArenA, this time with their medals and memories…
The Scottish contingent proving that traditionally, nothing is worn beneath a kilt (it is all in perfect working order)…
You can visit the official Gay Games Federation web site by clicking here.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 