Just out., July 17, 1998, Page 21, Image 21

(Uly 17. 1998 • Just out 21
says. “During the event, I experience every sin­
gle possible emotion, high and low.”
For training, Schuldt estimates that she runs
30 miles per week and bikes 125. Additionally,
she swims up to eight miles and does yoga reli­
giously. She only rests on Mondays, which she
considers her sabbath.
“For me, there’s athletics, and then there’s
the rest of life,” she says. “Everyone has their
passion, and mine is sports. For me, competing is
my life. It’s what makes me tick.”
MEET TOM CHUN,
SOCIAL SWIMMER
by
Jill Schuldt makes the transition from swimming to biking during a triathalon at Hague Lake
ARE YOU
GAME?
Continued from page 19
JILL SCHULDT:
COMPETITION MAKES
THIS ATHLETE TICK
by
L
P atrick C ollins
ife has a way, says triathlete Jill Schuldt, of
storing up the good things until you are
fully able to appreciate them.
“Going to the Gay Games is the most
incredible experience,” says Schuldt, 39, who
learned to swim at the age of three and was com­
peting by the time she turned five. “I could have
been an Olympic contender, but due to a num­
ber of factors I didn’t quite get the support I
needed at the time. Participating in the games is
a realization of that dream for me at a point in
my life when I appreciate it way more than I
would have as a kid.”
Amsterdam will be Schuldt’s fourth voyage
to the Gay Games. The first two trips she com­
peted only in swimming events; at the New
York games in 1994, she decided to do a
triathlon.
For Schuldt, the drive to compete is no
stranger. In 1972, at her high school in El
W ill O ’B ryan
’ve been preparing tor this for over a year
now,” says Tom Chun, who plans to com­
pete in various swimming events in
Amsterdam during the Gay Games.
In one sense, though, he’s been preparing all
his life. Bom in Hawaii, Chun says he grew up
around water and has been swimming since he
was very young.
As a child, Chun swam competitively. He
gave it up when he entered high school only to
rediscover the sport in his early 30s as a way to
regain what the years were starting to take away.
“It keeps you sharp,” he observes.
Lately, Chun’s honed that sharp edge with
weights in the morning and swimming at night.
He’s concentrating, he says, on the breast
Segundo, Calif., she became the first girl on the
boy’s swim team.
“All the pom-pom girls started coming to the
swim meets, which I loved, secretly, of course,”
she says with a laugh. “The boys had a lot of
respect for me until I started beating them.”
As part of the Amateur Athletic Union, she
competed throughout high school and college.
For a few years she withdrew from the competi­
tive realm, but in 1986 she heard about the
brand-new Gay Games, held that year in San
Francisco. It was that
experience, she says now,
that drew her back to
competition.
Since May she has
completed four Olympic-
distance
triathlons—
which consist of a one-
mile swim, a 25-mile bike
ride and a 6.2-mile run—
as well as three road
races. Her time varies
with the terrain, of
course, but at Blue Lake
Park in Portland, which
she believes is similar to
the course she’ll cover in
Amsterdam—she came
in at 2 hours, 18 minutes.
In 1996, Schuldt com­
pleted an Iron Man-dis­
tance triathlon in British
Columbia. In 13 hours,
57 minutes, she swam 2.4
miles, hiked 12 miles and
ran a marathon, which is
26.2 miles.
“Doing a triathlon is
the most incredible expe­
rience I’ve ever had,” she Tom Chun works on his breast stroke
stroke—his strongest stroke— with an eye on
surpassing his showing at the New York Gay
Games. In New York he finished in the top 20
of his competition, out of roughly 75 swimmers.
In Amsterdam, he’d like to finish in the top ten.
When Chun talks about the games, though,
an amiable nature shines through that implies
he’s more interested in people than sports. The
reason he participates, Chun admits, is “basical­
ly for the camaraderie,” wondering aloud what
kind of people he’ll meet in Amsterdam, what
friendships might develop.
For Chun, the socializing has already begun
stateside. He’s been reuniting with other Team
Oregon swimmers—some of whom he hadn’t
seen since the New York games—to prepare for
Amsterdam.
“Even though we’ve been apart tor so long,
there’s a spirit of pulling together to get there,"
he explains.
Being part of the sw immer contingent gives
Chun even more cause to involve himself with
other athletes. Reason being, the swimming
events include a relay. To amass enough relay
swimmers, they’re required to do what comes
naturally to the queer community: recruit.
In Chun’s own words, though, the fellowship
of the games sounds far more noble than relay
recruiting.
“Just being at the opening and closing cere­
monies with thousands of gay men and les­
bians,” Chun reflects, “it makes you feel like
you’re not alone, that there are people like you,
like you’re part of a group. Like you’re not a
minority.”
G od
G
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