FEATURE Sports Complex Putting It Together: Making Gay Sports Events Happen Jim Provenzano | September 15, 2004 Participants in Provincetown's Swim for Life - courtesy www.swim4life.org. It's easy to take the behind-the-scenes organization of GLBT sports events for granted. But most tournaments are planned more than a year in advance, and the people who plan them often work unacknowledged. Teams find that websites, message boards, and e-mail lists all play a part in keeping athletes up to date on event schedules, fees, and even gossip. Events with hundreds of participants, like the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA) annual meet, maintain expansive tournament schedules. IGLA is also sanctioned under U.S. Masters Swimming, which posts extensive online results of all their aquatics events. Tennis also draws hundreds of athletes to annual tournaments. Kevin Ware wasn't sure what he was in for when he took on the job of chairing this year's annual tournament of the Gay & Lesbian Tennis Federation (GLTF), held this June in San Francisco. A former modern dancer turned tennis player, Ware is also a Web designer. Renovating the GLTF's membership database and website led to his also updating registration, competition seeding, and online membership payments, and building a searchable database. "We made a concerted effort to get more members, and we accomplished our goal," Ware says. Ware also recruited help in arranging the tennis group's closing banquet at the fancy San Francisco Fairmont Hotel. In the top-floor ballroom with its awe-inspiring sunset view, tennis players socialized while perusing donated wines and artwork (as well as a few campy Barbie dolls). After dessert was served, dressed in a stylish suit and tie, Ware doled out silent auction and raffle prizes. Among the items were tennis racquets, massage certificates, and even adult gay DVDs, acquired by a tennis-playing employee of Falcon Video. There is a less glamorous side to running such a tournament. After the party, Ware headed off to a local supermarket. Putting his jacket and tie in his car, he had to buy muffins and fruit for the hundreds of hungry tennis players at the next morning's finals. For a huge quadrennial event like the Gay Games (to be held in Chicago July 15-22, 2006), online registration is the first step toward getting athletes to attend. That process was created mostly by volunteers. Gay Games VII registration opened in July 2004, the earliest ever preceding a Gay Games. In addition to a contracted software firm, two dozen Federation of Gay Games (FGG) representatives from seven countries voluntarily assisted Chicago Games, Inc. (CGI) project leaders in data collecting and database design. By building from the Sydney Games' participant database, outreach was made simpler. CGI representatives say that more than half of their first few hundred registrants attended Gay Games VI in Sydney. Yet most aspects of data-collecting were completely renovated since 2002. FGG Co-President Roberto Mantaci says the registration system consultation process was "a perfect example" of the new partnership between the FGG and CGI. "Both groups wanted to launch registration on June 1," Mantaci says. "Nonetheless, CGI and the FGG mutually agreed to withhold the opening of registration for additional [website] testing and improvements. That enabled Chicago to make changes that may not be visible to the person registering, but which represent a significant advance from previous registration procedures." Chicago's new system helps participants choose skills levels and locales, and helps place athletes without a team affiliation into sports months beforehand. Smaller events rely more on the tenacity of their creators. Jay Critchley produced the first Provincetown Harbor Swim for Life and Paddler Flotilla in 1987. Now in its 17th year, this year's Swim for Life, held Sept. 11, attracted more than 300 swimmers and kayak paddlers, and 150 volunteers. Last year's Swim raised more than $134,000 for local AIDS and women's health organizations. Swim for Life's first go wasn't easy. Reports of polluted harbor water made the headlines that year. "A lot of people said, 'You'll never make it; it's dangerous,'" says Critchley, who envisioned the event as a way to also remember those lost to AIDS. Somehow, he convinced 16 swimmers to brave the waters of Cape Cod's Long Point. Holding the event after Labor Day weekend furthers interest beyond the summer holidays, but it's also the only time most locals are available. "A lot of people have a strong attachment to the community," says Critchley. "But people come from all over the Northeast to participate." Food, logistics, and medical crews are recruited locally. With cheerleaders, a stock of wetsuits, and almost 40 borrowed boats, the swimming event is bracketed with an outdoor concert the night before and a "Mermaid Brunch" afterward. Critchley says keeping Swim for Life on a small scale retains its community style. "We don't have pre-registration, and we don't have high minimum pledges," he says. All participants raise a minimum of $100, but most raise more. Critchley says that about a third of the swimmers are in training, but many use it to overcome personal anxieties about open-water swimming. "For most, it's a personal challenge," he says. "They get a lot out of it. That's the real key." Jim Provenzano is the author of the novels PINS and Monkey Suits. Read more sports articles at www.sportscomplex.org Related stories Kicks: Gay Soccer's World Cup Runneth Over [19/07/2004] For more info on Gay Sport in South Africa contact Gay Sport SA