Jun 23, 2006  |  By: KATHERINE VOLIN  | COMMENTS     

Chris Higgins says he wasn’t expecting to win a gold medal at the Gay Games in Sydney four years ago.

“It was kind of a whim,” Higgins says about his decision to compete in the power lifting competition in Sydney in 2002.

While recovering from knee surgery a year before the Sydney Games he worked with a trainer who was “really into power sports” Higgins says.

“I’d never even heard of power lifting before I met this trainer five years ago,” Higgins, 41, says.

Prior to his participation in the Gay Games, Higgins had also never competed in the sport.

“It was my first competition ever,” he says. “[Winning a gold medal] was just completely unexpected in the sense that I had no clue what I was doing, for the most part.”

Higgins attributes his win to the aid he received from other power lifters at the Gay Games

“The reason it was such a great experience was that all the guys who were there — people who had done this before — just took me under their wing,” Higgins says. “It was just amazing. I would have completely screwed up if it hadn’t have been for them.”

Higgins is headed back to the Gay Games in Chicago from July 15-22 as well as the Out Games in Montreal from July 29 - Aug. 5. In addition to power lifting, he plans to participate in shot put, discus and javelin.

Of course, he’s never competed in those field events before, but if his previous Gay Games experiences are any indication, it seems unlikely that will stop him from succeeding.

“I’m not necessarily committed to one sport,” Higgins says. “I’m open to new things.”

THIS IS THE first year for the World Out Games, which were created following a disagreement between Montreal and the Federation of Gay Games, the San Francisco-based producer of the event. After Montreal declared it would host the Out Games instead, the Gay Games moved to Chicago.

Wherever they are held, the athletes tend to take over the host city.

“You overtake the city — this influx of people,” says Brent Minor, president of Team D.C., which coordinates participation of local gay athletes in the Out Games and Gay Games. Minor estimates that 12,000 athletes participate in the Gay Games, which he says is more than participate in the Summer Olympics.

“You are the scene for that week in the city,” Minor says. Prior to Chicago’s selection for the 2006 games, Minor says he was trying to get D.C. as the host for 2010.

“The city is very supportive,” he says.

In honor of the local gay athletes headed to the Out Games and Gay Games, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams declared June 20, 2006 “Team D.C. Day.”

“We’re proud to have one of the strongest LGBT sports communities in the entire United States, with more than 2,000 people participating in organized sports teams,” Williams said at the Team D.C. Day ceremony, held Tuesday, June 20.

Team D.C. traditionally holds a rally to celebrate its members before they head off to the competition. This year, the rally is being held Thursday, June 29, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Titan, 1337 14th St., NW.

Williams and gay Arlington County board member Jay Fisette attended the rally for the Gay Games in 2002, but Williams’ schedule prevented him from appearing this year, so he decided to hold the ceremony instead, according to Minor. During the event, which was attended by about 20 gay athletes including Higgins, the mayor and Minor spoke and Williams gave Minor a plaque commemorating Team D.C. Day.

SUZANNE SKELLEY, 42, has been rowing with D.C. Strokes, a local gay and lesbian rowing team, for two years. The team is headed to Montreal this year where they will be able to row in the Olympic Basin that was created on Île Notre-Dame for the 1976 Olympics.

“I think for the club it was hard to beat the venue of the Olympic Basin,” Skelley says.

Skelley first rowed in college at the Naval Academy. After the Academy she served in the Navy for six years as a special operations officer but never rowed again until she joined up with the Strokes.

“Once I became aware that the games were going to be this year, then I was interested in competing and going out for the team,” Skelley says.

Her interest, she says, was piqued by the attractive idea of international community.

“It’s just a great way to compete,” she says. “It’s an international competition and being the Out Games just makes it that ...