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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1998)
(Uly 17. 1998 * j u s t o u t 17 ARE YOU GAME? JOIN A HOST OF OREGON ATHLETES WHO ARE HEADED TO AMSTERDAM FOR GAY GAMES V photos by RIP-ROARING ALONG by R P atrick C ollins L inda K lieyver throughout August. While there is no official organization handling the logistics for athletes and spectators from the Pacific Northwest, Rupinski says he hopes some sort of umbrella group will form in anticipation of the 2002 games in Sydney, Australia. But what Rupinski is really hoping for is a chance to duplicate what he experienced for the first time at the 1990 Gay Gam es in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was, in his own words, the most gay-positive experience he has ever had, ip Rupinski speaks of his upcoming trip to Gay Games V, scheduled for Aug. 1 to 8 in Amsterdam, in terms far more com munal than competitive. “In a race, once the first 10 come in, who cares if you’re number 300 or 3,000?” asks Rupinski, who has been running off and on for the past 20 years and will compete— in his very own way— in the 10-kilometer race in Amsterdam. The Gay Games feature a little som ething for almost everyone. Billed as friendship through culture and sports, the event is held every four years with the goal of enhanc ing the worldwide emancipation of the gay and lesbian community. This is achieved, according to the pro gram, through the melding of non competitive cultural and sporting activities in which anyone can par ticipate. “You don’t have to be a world- class athlete to take part in this,” Rupinski says, estimating he can complete his event in 49 minutes— not a bad time, especially for a 52- year-old, but hardly record-setting. “There are some sports where you have to qualify in order to com pete, but most of them you don’t,” he adds. Rip Rupinski getting in shape for the 10 kilometer race This year’s games include 30 offi and it is with hopes of sharing that feeling that cial sports, but the sports are only the beginning of a rainbow of activities planned for partici he is bringing his partner of nine years to Amsterdam. pants and spectators alike. Between the bound- “The games provided an all-gay venue that to-be-fabulous opening and closing ceremonies, organizers have assembled an impressive array of was very different from anything I’d ever wit nessed before,” he says. “I hate to use this word, performance artists, exhibitions, demonstration but I felt normal, like we were in the majority sports and tours o f Am sterdam and the and there was nothing to hide, which has had a Netherlands. very positive effect on how I deal with the “One of the special things about this year’s games is the official addition of cultural pro world.” grams,” says Rupinski, who has traveled to the Netherlands three times in the past year on organizing missions. He promises choruses galore, comprised of singers from all over the world who will assem ble in Amsterdam and set the games to music. “There will also be writers and painters and bands,” he adds. “Somewhere you’ll find some by W ill O’B ryan thing you’re interested in.” Parties, for example. What the program lists earing Ellen Carter choose her words as official parties, Rupinski breaks down more cautiously, it’s easy to get the impression clearly. There will be parties for women, and she’s modest and guarded. Maybe she is. parties for ballroom dancers. There will be a But her sport, martial arts forms, is not. disco party, and a white party, as well as a black Carter will present herself before a panel of one— in other words, a leather party. Amsterdam , according to Rupinski, is judges in Amsterdam and perform a routine not unlike a gymnasts. The difference? thrilled to host the Gay Games. The mayor and “A lot more kicking and punching," Carter various tourism officials have hosted familiariza explains. “1 just go out and I’m judged and have tion trips for the International Gay and Lesbian no control over what the competition does.” Travel Association, and the city has set aside its It’s a pretty vulnerable position for an athlete music center for a friendship village. who’s modestly reluctant to confirm she holds As owner of the Carlson Wagonlit travel two gold medals from previous Gay Games. agency in Portland, Rupinski has found himself Nevertheless, Carter’s desire to get out and com at the nerve center of organizing the Oregon pete has defeated her seemingly reserved nature. contingent. Carter earned a gold medal in softball at the So far, his group consists of 22 women and 16 1990 Vancouver Gay Games and for martial arts men who will leave on July 30 and return TWO TIME GOLD MEDALIST ELLEN CARTER IS IN TOP FORM at the 1994 New York Gay Games. Her hope, she says, is that Amsterdam will be more like Vancouver. “In New York, I felt the games were just lost in the crowd,” Carter recalls. “We were a mini mal impact on the city.... I’m hoping [the Amsterdam G ay Gam es] are more like Vancouver. With a city that size we just took it over.” Carter says that the affirmation offered by the whole Vancouver Gay Games experience One emotion has, however, crept in to Carter’s pregame regimen: anxiety. Although she’s put mind over matter and chosen to put herself in the arena, she admits she’s “fighting the nervousness. Nerves are still an issue.” THE SKY IS THE LIMIT FOR MARC WALTERS by P atrick C ollins M was very powerful for lesbians and gay men, adding that she and her traveling companion, fellow athlete and friend Dawn Collins, were misty-eyed as they drove out of the city. But as far as Amsterdam goes, the emotion has yet to begin, and for the time being it’s train ing, training, training. For the past nine months, Carter has taken two or three days of each week to practice forms. Other days she runs, and some days she lifts weights. N ot a week goes by that she doesn’t spend five or six days working out, Carter estimates. arc Walters describes himself as a con servative climber, but a quick glance at his climbing log and his plans for the next several weeks might bring to mind a slightly more adventurous term. He’s climbed, for instance, El Capitan and the Half Dome, both in California’s Yosemite Valley. Half Dome was a breeze, relatively speak ing, but El Capitan, with its 3,000-foot vertical rise, was a five-day undertaking, requiring him to sleep on ledges— when there were ledges, that is— and on a hammock suspended from whatever was handy when there were no ledges to be found. “I’m an insomniac,” Walters says, “so I can’t really say what it’s like to wake up suspended in midair.” In July, he’s off to Italy to climb limestone cliffs near the Italian Riviera. Then to France, where he’ll tackle the granite spires of Chamonix, in the heart of the French Alps. Weather permitting, he and a friend will climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland before he arrives in Amsterdam for the August 1 opening of the Gay Games. “It should be a good warm-up for the games,” Walters says of his July itinerary, without even a trace of sarcasm. At 41, Walters has 19 years of climbing expe rience, not counting the five or six years he took off to pursue another passion, windsurfing. With windsurfing, he says, you reach a certain point where the challenge wears off. N ot so with rock climbing. “It appeals to the analytical side of me,” says Walters, who teaches anatomy and physiology H Ellen Carter (right) practices forms with trainer Patty Olinger C on tin u ed on page 19