[Article: Every athlete has a story] Page: 1 of 2
1 p. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this article.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
TRACK AND FIELD
RACING THROUGH DARKNESS
NANCY STEVENS, 33, trains for the Gay
Games with her running partner at 9,000
feet, high in the mountains of Colorado,
where she has clocked a 22-minute, 30-sec-
ond five-kilometer run (about a five-minute
mile). An impressive Rocky Mountain landscape unfolds
before her, though Stevens cannot see it.
Born, raised, and educated in Michigan, Stevens moved
to Colorado in 1984 to be a ski bum and find herself, work-
ing as a dishwasher and skiing three days a week at Winter
Park, which has a renowned ski program for the disabled.
Before retiring from full-time skiing, she won two downhill
gold medals at the 1988 Nationals for the Blind in Vale, and
three silvers in cross-country skiing events at Ridder Ren-
net, Norway's annual sporting event for the disabled.
A more trying aspect of Stevens' life has been her search
for information about lesbianism, "because there was noth-
ing accessible in Braille." It was after a friend directed her to
Womyn's Braille Press in Minnesota, and their extensive se-
lection of audiotapes, that she could hear for the first time
the work of Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Jane Rule, as
well as periodicals like Off Our Backs and Sojourner.
Stevens now lives in Frisco, a mountain community 8o
miles west of Denver, where she runs living skills programs
for people with disabilities. Her participation in the Gay
Games' 5- and 1o-K races is thanks to New York's Achilles
Running Club, which found her a running partner.
A grant from a cellular phone company now allows
Stevens to cross-country ski (in set tracks) without a par-
ner, relying on her cellular if she gets lost. "It's a little bit ()f
fear, and a little bit of 'Oh, wow, I'm out here by myself wit
nobody to tell me what to do!'"-ELISE HARRIS
SQUASH
THE HOMELAND TEAM
W ITH TH E ROA R OF 65,000 SPECTA-
TORS in her ears, Susan Greene and the
American team entered the stadium last
June as skydivers parachuted onto the
field, and an Olympic medalist lit the torch
to open the 14th Games in Tel Aviv. "People were just
screaming their heads off," recalls Greene. "That's proba-
bly what I'll remember the rest of my life."
Fourteenth Games? Tel Aviv? Last June? Though
they're among the largest international games any-
where, the Maccabiah Games-like the Gay Games-
suffer from a lack of public recognition. First held in
the British mandate of Palestine in 1932, the Maccabi-
ahs have taken place in Israel every four years since
1957. "1 call them the Jewish Olympics," says Greene.
Greene, 31 and recently ranked 15th nationally
by the United States Squash Racquets Association,
is organizing the Gay Games squash tournament.
"It's a British Empire sort of game," she said. Play-
Eric Washington is the New York editor of BLK and
has contributed to The Village Voice and Metropolis.
Freelance reporter Bob Nelson has contributed to
The Boston Globe and The Advocate.---'
;-Z ;
W--126
ers from the United
Kingdom, Canada,
and Australia are
expected. Greene,
inspired by gay squash clubs in Boston and Toron-
to, has founded a hometown entry, the New York
Nicks. (A nick is when the ball simultaneously hits
the wall and floor, and then dies.)
Greene hopes Gay Games can borrow another
chapter from the 1993 Maccabiahs,. where ath-
letes traded uniforms, so that at the closing cere-
monies it was hard to tell teammate from oppo-
nent. "You really feel like you're part of one big
team," she says.-B.N.
FLAG FOOTBALL
A F A M I L Y A F F A I R
JAMES HOLLANDER DOES NOT RELISH his Gay
Games flag football practice. "It's like going back
to high school." However rough-and-tumble the
world of flag football, Hollander can't say he's un-
prepared: The born-and-bred son of New Orleans
comes from a family of five brothers. One played basket-
ball, three played football (for Tulane, Southern Mississip-
pi, and Louisiana State universities), and James is, as he
puts it. "the gay black sheep." "When I was growing up," he
says, "the punishment was always more sports!"
The past year has brought a more positive sports expe-
rience for Hollander, though organizing all the flag football
games for Gay Games IV, he says, hasn't brought him any
closer to his brothers. "I love my brothers dearly," he says,
"but they don't understand how important this is to me or to
the community." Occasionally the brothers can bond over a
few sample plays. but James was disappointed at their tepid
response. "I did this more for me than for them," he says, "I
didn't do this to make myself seem more butch. I'm satisfy-
ing a lot of parts of me that I couldn't satisfy before."
The Gay Games will be the scene for a family reunion
of one variety, however: His lesbian cousin will be coming
from Columbus, Ohio, with her lover and their baby. "It's
better to have someone there who understands it, than
someone who can't appreciate it," he muses.-E.H.
---------------------
I CHEERLEADING
IP E P D I S P E N S E R SI
HE FRESH-FACED MEN of pep squad Cheer I
Dallas will surely be the belles of the ball this I
IJune when they come to New York to support I
ITeam Dallas. But while they are entertaining I
Tall of us at the Gay Games' opening and clos- I
I ing ceremonies, team founder Ken Jorns insists they re- I
I main loyal to the Lone Star State. Cheer Dallas has bal- I
I looned to 55 members since it was founded in July 1993, I
and the squad is known to throw some of the biggest and I
best benefits in the city. Jorns, appropriately, keeps his I
feet off the ground: "There's so much negativity in our I
community," he says. "Here we've got a positive force. I
It's a high for everybody."-E.H.
L-"----'--------------------
ON THE FLY: Cheer Dallas gets into positions.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANA BIRCHUM 127i
Iii
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This article can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Article.
[Article: Every athlete has a story], article, 1994; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc915823/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.