"With a rainbow flag past the Louvre": I participated in the LGBT Olympiad
Last week in Paris ended Gay Games, which participants informally call "LGBT + Olympic Games." The event is held in accordance with the standards of the Olympiad - every four years. This time more than ten thousand athletes took part in the competitions in thirty-six disciplines, including such unusual ones for the majority, like men's synchronized swimming or ballroom dancing in odnogendernyh couples.
Gay Games has been held since 1982 under the motto “Everyone is equal”, implying equality, solidarity and inclusion regardless of age, level of training, sexual orientation or health characteristics: participation can be taken without having special qualifications. Athletes from Russia at the Games can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Documentary film producer Danil Titov, who won a bronze medal in tennis, spoke about the scale of the event, victory and attitude towards Russian athletes.
About tennis and competition
I started playing tennis to keep fit: I was tired of running, and I was bored in the gym. Among my friends there is a tennis coach, he offered to try, and for three years now I have been training and participating in competitions. There are different tournaments in Moscow, but, as often happens, there is not a gay friendly atmosphere. My coach tried to hold gay tournaments, it turned out that there were only ten people to get together. Then we began to go to international tournaments; There is such an American organization GLTA (Gay & Lesbian Tennis Alliance), which holds competitions in different cities and countries for people who identify themselves as LGBT +. This is a huge organization in which there are people who play tennis for twenty years and more. Not less than a hundred people usually take part in competitions, and sometimes there are 300-350, everything is very seriously organized. In addition to the competitions themselves, there are always opening and closing events, there are all kinds of snacks and water for athletes, it even happens that the organizers provide accommodation or tickets to some of the athletes if a person cannot afford it.
It is important that although all the participants are lovers and everyone has the main work, the competitions are held very seriously, people give it all their weight, they fight for victory. When my friend first went to a company for one of the competitions, he was very surprised - I thought that sport was just a reason for a party, and did not expect such seriousness. Everything is real: you score points, you move from one category to another, you play on different courts (with a hard surface or with clay), for which you need completely different training - and for those living in the Russian climate this is a separate difficulty. My first tournament was in Miami, then I was only eight months old, flew in and became the winner in my category (and immediately moved from category D to C). It was very cool, euphoria appeared, I raised the bar for myself - and then I went to Tel Aviv, went out to play in my new category and immediately lost, it turned out to be much more difficult. And then went Amsterdam, Prague, again America - it is so exciting that it is impossible to stop.
About Gay Games and the Russian Delegation
I found out about the Olympiad about seven months before it and got very excited, began to persuade my friends to register(At first, the event was called Gay Olympics, but in 1987, as a result of a trial with the United States Olympic Committee, the name changed to Gay Games; since the games were built according to the principles of the Olympiad, unofficially they continue to be called that. -Note Ed.). There is such a system: when you register, you must immediately pay for participation, it costs 240 euros, and usually you don’t pay more than a hundred for a tournament. In general, friends somehow hesitated, and I took and paid immediately. As a result, we went to Paris together with my regular double partner. We were the only Russians out of 560 tennis players, prepared to represent the country, bought branded polo with Russian symbols. All our tennis friends, including European and American, knew that we were the only ones coming from Russia, we were very supportive, constantly wrote messages, encouraged us.
At the opening ceremony, we waited for two hours for our release - and at that moment it turned out that there were several other Russian athletes. And while everyone was taking pictures with us, they managed to announce the exit of Russia, and they left without us - we had to catch up. That is, we did not know about their existence, and they did not know about us. It turned out that there are eight people who came from the sports LGBT community, badminton players and other athletes. And somehow it turned out that they practically didn’t talk to us, so condescendingly “let's go, since you are lost” - in general, the relationship did not work out. Then we have never met with this company for all the days of the Olympiad, and everyone called us "two of Russia".
On the emotions and support of Paris
I never thought that I would play on such steep stadiums, on such a large-scale level, that I would see so many athletes in one city, so much struggle, so much overcoming - goosebumps when I remember. It is amazing how different people are: tall, short, different skin colors, full, thin, with two arms and legs or not - and everyone fights at a high sports level. Theoretically, since there is no strict selection, you can enroll in different sports - but this does not happen, people have been preparing for the Olympiad for years. We went to different competitions and saw how difficult and difficult it was - even if it was some kind of petanque, which from the outside can seem like a frivolous game.
At the same time, the atmosphere is very friendly, and everyone supports each other. At the athletics competitions, there was a race for 1000 meters - and there all the participants stood at the finish and cheered on the last runner who was two minutes behind them. I also wanted to play in a mixed pair, but I didn’t have a partner; I advertised on Facebook - and found Charlotte. She is sixty, she is from Australia, weighing heavily more than the average player - she was preparing to go to these Games for ten years. True, we lost the mix, but got incredibly cool emotions. I was very worried about her in other matches and very happy that she won silver and bronze.
It was a smart organization. Everyone was given travel passes on the metro (and in Paris one trip costs 2 euros), we had a pass to all events, to all parties, to shows like figure skating. Naturally, water is everywhere for athletes and the opportunity to eat. Everywhere the doctors were on duty and there were ambulances - after all, heavy loads, and even very strong heat. We played the most beautiful courts, where French stars play. That is, everything happens not somewhere in small private clubs, not on reservations, but in large stadiums, with the full support of the city and the country. And, of course, we are happy that we - the only two Russian tennis players - brought home gold and bronze. Of the 560 people, there were 32 medalists, and we were among them.
At the opening of the Olympiad we were congratulated by the mayor of Paris, the ministers of sports, labor and social development, culture, and after the official part, the passage through the city began. We walked with a huge LGBT flag for two hours, made a circle and returned back to the city hall. From all sides they applauded, whistled, there were a huge number of people. This was called the Memorial Run, it was dedicated to the dead people from the LGBT community, and it was all very life-affirming. We somehow found ourselves at the very beginning, and I go and think: in life I could not imagine that I would pass by the Louvre, holding onto a thirty-meter rainbow flag. There was also an official transfer of the following Gay Games to the representatives of Hong Kong - there will be games in 2022, and I will definitely go there.
All of Paris was plastered with Gay Games posters, they all went with branded backpacks, people approached us and asked where it went and how to get there. There were full stands of fans. And, of course, it’s cool that in other countries there are serious sports LGBT communities that brought huge teams, took part of the payment, put everyone in the same shape - that is, they had training like the teams for the Olympic Games. For example, two hundred people flew in from Australia; the Ministry of Health participated in the preparation; they had coordinators who helped everyone, answered questions, took people on excursions. Some countries had parties - there was a Mexican party, the Dutch, Asian, of the combined teams of Asian countries.
About registration and gender categories
In principle, only a medical certificate is required to participate in Gay Games. To be categorized according to the level of preparedness, of course, you need to provide your data - in my case, this is the number in GLTA, which helps to determine my fitness and put me in a category that is adequate to the level. The Olympic Games are also theoretically considered to be amateur ones - but we all understand that this level is not available to those who play sports for the soul and in addition to the main work. If in tennis such strikes that the ball flies at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour when serving and the rackets change every couple of games, this is hardly possible without special training.
The description of Gay Games says that this event is also for transgender people, people with fluid sexuality or variable gender; This also applies to other LGBT friendly tournaments. In fact, as a result, if there are male and female categories in sports, the participants are distributed in them - and sometimes this happens incorrectly. There was a story at the tournament in Israel when a transgender woman was not allowed into the female category. She has almost completed her transition plan, performed operations (quite a while ago, three years before the tournament), but didn’t finish a course of hormones — or, at least, couldn’t provide a certificate of that. And in the distribution of participants in the "female" and "male" categories, strict criteria apply - and in the end she had to still play with men.
