Tag: LGBT Athletes

http://www.advocate.com/printArticle.aspx?id=185520

In the past year she’s battled breast cancer and a pulmonary edema scare on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. But on and off the court, Martina Navratilova is still a fighter.

Martina Navratilova has seen better years. She started 2010 with a fractured wrist she sustained while playing hockey — the first time, as it happens, that one of the titans of the professional sports world has ever broken a bone. Then in February, Navratilova was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was noninvasive but required a lumpectomy, followed by radiation therapy. Add to that the reported $3 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by a former partner that had spawned tabloid headlines like “Martina Navratilova Sued for Millions by ‘Wife’ After Being ‘Dumped Without Warning.’” Then bookend those misfortunes with a charity trek up Africa’s tallest peak in December that ended in a high-altitude pulmonary edema scare, an emergency descent, and days of hospitalization.

The Billie Jean King Interview

INSIDE TENNIS: There’s a story that a woman in Manhattan tells a taxi driver, “I have to go out to Queens and meet Billie Jean King. When the taxi driver asks how to get there, she says, “Well, there’s a big brick building that has her name on it.” Is that true?

BILLIE JEAN KING: It was one of the sponsors coming out to the suite.

IT: What is it like to have your name up on the tennis center, to have such fame? What is that lifestyle like?

BJK: It’s a sense of responsibility. It’s our job to go for it.

BEFORE Dr. Renée Richards had a sex-change operation, when she was an up-and-coming eye doctor and one of the top-ranked amateur tennis players in the East, she could be, by her own estimation, an arrogant fellow, tough and demanding. Talking with her three decades later, one still has the uneasy sense, at times, of that impatient male surgeon trapped in her body trying to break out.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2011/11/15/two-gay-swimmers-are-among-oldest-olympic-trial-qualifiers-ever/

Two openly gay swimmers have become two of the three oldest swimmers to ever qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials. Two 37-year-olds, Brian Jacobsen (right) from Minnesota andauthor Jeff Commings have accomplished the incredible, qualifying for the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter breaststroke respectively.

http://www.nightlifegay.com/2011/11/gay-swimmers-to-make-history-at-2012-us.html

 

A huge congratulations is owed to Brian Jacobsen (top photo) from Minnesota! The 37-year old openly gay administrator at the Univ of Minnesota just became the second-oldest male swimmer in history to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. He eclipsed the qualifying standard of 23.49 in the 50-meter freestyle by two-hundredths of a second at last evening’s U.S. Grand Prix Swim Meet in Minneapolis. His time of 23.47 guarantees him a spot to swim at next summer’s U.S. Olympic Trials. He joins Jeff Commings (second photo) – who is also openly gay and also 37 years old (though a couple months younger than Brian) – as two of the three oldest male swimmers EVER to make the U.S. Olympic Trials. Commings, a former NCAA Champion at the University of Texas-Austin, punched his ticket to trials last summer in the 100 meter breaststroke!

http://www.out.com/entertainment/2010/07/05/catching-johnny-weir

When you hear the name Johnny Weir, it’s not the fact that he’s a three-time U.S. National Champion and Olympic figure skating star that first comes to mind. Instead, it’s usually the looming question of his sexuality, his TV series on the Sundance Channel, Be Good Johnny Weir, or his infamous catfights with fellow skating star Evan Lysacek.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2011/11/10/david-testo-american-professional-soccer-player-comes-out/

David Testo, former MLS player with the Columbus Crew, has told the CBC that he is gay. He is the first former MLS player to do so. And his former Canadian team, the Montreal Impact, say they knew he was gay when they signed him.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2011/11/09/chris-birch-former-rugger-claims-a-stroke-turned-him-gay/

Imagine going to bed one night straight and waking up the next morning gay. That’s essentially what Welsh former rugby player Chris Birch is claiming happened after he suffered a stroke after doing a backflip to impress friends. The rugger, who was then engaged to his girlfriend, said he awoke from the incident suddenly gay.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/may/04/gareth-thomas-gay-interview-crusaders

In his new home, a hotel halfway between Chester and Wrexham,Gareth Thomas walks up and down the same corridor every day. On his way to and from breakfast and dinner, Thomas is reminded constantly that he now lives in a hotel which specialises in hosting elaborate weddings. The walls leading from the foyer to the restaurant are covered in soft-focus photographs of beaming brides and grinning grooms, their smiles as big as their hairstyles.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2011/10/05/moment-1-dave-kopay-comes-out-as-gay-in-newspaper-interview/

Football, 1975: Dave Kopay was pissed. It was December 1975 and he had read an article in the Washington Star newspaper that dealt with the difficulties of being a homosexual in sports. It quoted, without naming him, an NFL player and his experiences. Kopay knew at once that the player was his former Washington Redskins teammate Jerry Smith, with whom he had had a sexual encounter.