The Federation of Gay Games' Awards Sub-committee announced six finalists for the 2002 Tom Waddell Award for Outstanding Gay Games Participation. The award will be presented to one male and one female who have demonstrated a history of outstanding participation, determined by his or her history of service in the arts, athletics or volunteerism. The recipients will receive the Tom Waddell Award at the closing ceremony of Gay Games VI in Sydney, Australia Nov. 9.
Female nominees are: Susan Kennedy of Antioch, Calif.; and Gert McMullin of Atlanta, Ga. Male nominees are: Stuart Borrie of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Gene Dermody of San Francisco; Derek Liecty of Oakland, Calif.; and Jean-Nickolaus Tretter of Little Canada, Minn. A tie in the preliminary selection process has resulted in four male finalists.
"Not everybody is aware that hundreds of volunteers devote an enormous amount of time and spirit to the Gay Games movement and to make the Games happen," said Roberto Mantaci, Federation of Gay Games Co-President. "The Tom Waddell Award is the perfect occasion to acknowledge the finest and most dedicated of them and to introduce them to our constituency so that they receive the public recognition they deserve."
All teams and organizations that are active in the Gay Games are invited to nominate a person who: inspires great pride through qualities of leadership and excellence in the field of sports, culture, and/or volunteerism; participates at his or her personal best and sets a landmark of inspiration for others; devotes his or her energies to the success of the Gay Games without seeking vainglory; and embodies the standards of commitment, selflessness, and love of humanity, as set by the late Dr. Tom Waddell.
The award pays tribute to Dr. Waddell, who finished sixth in the decathlon at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City and dreamed of a sporting event based on the philosophy that "doing one's personal best should be the paramount goal in any athletic endeavour."
The Tom Waddell Award was first given to Paul Mart in 1990 at Games III in Vancouver and next to the late Rikki Streicher in 1994 at Gay Games IV in New York. Mart and Streicher served on the board of directors of San Francisco Arts & Athletics, the organization that supervised Gay Games I and II. Ruth Gursky received the Tom Waddell award in 1998 at Gay Games V in Amsterdam for her work with Team New York.
See www.gaygames.org .
In related news, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that "After years of ill will between the U.S. Olympic movement and the Gay Games athletic competition, organizers of the gay event and boosters of bringing the Olympics to the Bay Area in 2012 said ... they had joined forces to help each other's causes. The goodwill gesture is in part an attempt by the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee to shore up support for its 2012 bid with a constituency still seething over the Gay Games' losing battle to be called the Gay Olympics."
In 1987, the USOC sued Gay Games founder and former Olympian Tom Waddell and the Federation over their use of the word Olympics, citing property infringement. The USOC slapped a lien on Waddell's home, even as he fought a losing battle against AIDS. Waddell died after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Olympic movement, the paper reported.
Gay activists upset over Waddell's treatment lobbied then-San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos against bidding for the 1996 Olympics, and the city eventually dropped out of the running. "I'm so proud to be here today, and I know Tom would support this," said Waddell's widow, Sarah Waddell Lewinstein. "There's nothing more that Tom wanted than inclusiveness, and that's what this is about. "Of course it's PR," she added. "It's PR on how to bury the hatchet. It means educating people about change."
