With the raising of the rainbow flag, the 2004 EuroGames officially began on Thursday, July 29. Nearly 8,000 GLBT athletes from 40 countries marched into the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany, for the gala opening ceremonies. Outside of the Gay Games, the EuroGames is the largest gathering of lesbian and gay athletes in the world.

Organized by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF), the EuroGames have become a strongly rooted tradition in the European gay and lesbian sporting community. The games took place around Olympic Park, the scene of 1972’s Munich Olympic Games. The EuroGames have been held each summer since 1992 except for 1994, 1998 and 2002 – years in which Gay Games were held.

Making a strong showing at the EuroGames this year were delegations from feuding gay sporting events, the OutGames, which will be held in Montréal, and the Gay Games, which will take place in Chicago. Both events are scheduled for the summer of 2006 and are vying for the same international pool of athletes to attend their weeklong sports and cultural events.

In March of this year, the EGLSF decided to withdraw from the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) and appointed two of its representatives to the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA), the new international GLBT sport organization that chose Montréal as the host city for the first World OutGames in 2006.

Olympic gold medallist and OutGames co-president Mark Tewksbury, who led a delegation of six people to Munich, said: “It’s a wonderful summer of sports, because after Munich, I will continue traveling to Athens for the summer Olympics.”

Montréal 2006 had an information kiosk in the Rainbow Village at the EuroGames and made presentations to participants on the EuroGames’ main stage. Tewksbury also hosted a program entitled “Canada Under the Rainbow” the night before the opening of the EuroGames at Munich’s prestigious Amerika Haus.

At the invitation of European organizers, seven Chicago Gay Games VII representatives were also in Munich to attend the 2004 EuroGames.

“We are very excited to have been invited by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) and the EuroGames organizers to come to Munich and talk about the Gay Games with athletes from throughout Europe,” said Dennis Sneyers, Chicago Games, Inc. (CGI) board co-chair and one of the delegates traveling to Munich. “Gay Games VII and the EuroGames share the same ideals and goals, and European participation in the 2006 Gay Games is very important to the worldwide Gay Games movement.”

Chicago’s delegation also includes sports co-chairs Suzanne Arnold and Sam Coady, marketing chair and board co-vice chair Kevin Boyer, mass transit expert and grant writing committee member Kim Hunt, and former Team Chicago co-chair and finance committee member Elizabeth Valenti. Rounding out the delegation will be Gary Medler, a three-time Sydney Gay Games medallist in cycling and legal counsel to CGI. Approximately a dozen Gay Games supporters from the international Federation of Gay Games and its member organizations in Europe joined the Chicago delegation.

- Compiled from press releases