Ohio State Hockey: You Can Play

ESPN Airs Pro Bowling Champion Kissing His Husband After Winning Final Match

Out Sports reports:

In what might be a first, ESPN this weekend showed an openly gay male pro athlete kissing his husband and they did not shy away from describing the relationship. The event was the 2012 PBA Chameleon Championship in Las Vegas, held in November, but shown on TV this Sunday.Scott Norton won the event over Jason Belmonte and afterward broke down and cried in memory of a friend who had died. He was then shown kissing his husband, Craig Woodward, as they exchanged affectionate words (video below). During the telecast, ESPN’s announcers referred to Woodward as Norton’s husband or spouse.I am indebted to JW, himself gay and a bowler, and Jaime Perez, who runs iabowling.tv, and shoots footage of bowling events, for their reports. Perez and his partner are themselves bowlers and friends with Norton.

Picture Of The Day: Out Australian Olympian Diver Matthew Mitcham For Funky Trunks

Australia: Matthew Mitcham, Gay Olimpian Diver, Wirtes Autobio & Talks About Success, Addiction

Puerto Rican Olympian Boxer Orlando Cruz Comes Out As A “Proud Gay Man”

Joe.My.God. reports:

• “I’ve been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career. I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man.” - Pro boxer Orlando Cruz.

Fight News notes his impressive record: 

• Cruz began boxing at the age of 7 and posted an amateur career record of 178-11. He won 7 Puerto Rico National titles and spent 4 years on The Puerto Rican National Team. Cruz won 7 Gold Medals, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze in various international tournaments. His amateur career culminated as a representative of the 2000 Olympic Team in Sydney, Australia. 2000 Olympic teammates included former world champions Miguel Cotto and Ivan Calderon. Cruz made his professional debut on December 15, 2000 and won his first world title on March 22, 2008 (vacant IBA Featherweight Title) and a regional title on October 14, 2011 (WBO Latino Featherweight title). His next fight is scheduled for October 19 at the Kissimmee Civic Center in Kissimmee, Florida in which he will defend his WBO NABO title against Jorge Pazos. A win against Pazos should position Cruz for a world title shot.

CANADA: Toronto Blue Rays’ Yunel Escobar Returns To Play By Accepting First Pitch From Gay Athlete

Joe.My.God. reports:

Last night Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar “drew some boos” when his name was announced before the team’s first home game since he was suspended for writing “You’re a faggot” in his eye-black.  In a show of contrition, Escobar then took the field to receive the ceremonial first pitch from an openly gay soccer player. 

Escobar caught the ceremonial first pitch from David Testo, a former MLS soccer player who is openly gay. Testo is now a board member for You Can Play, an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes. Before the game, Escobar sat down with Jose Estevez, an openly gay distance runner from Boston College, and Patrick Burke, the founder of You Can Play. Escobar’s lost salary during his three-game ban — about $82,000 — was to be directed to You Can Play and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Burke said the 45-minute meeting was helpful for all parties. “I think it put a face on the issue for Yunel,” Burke said. “I think it humanized the issue of gay athletes for Yunel and I think Jose did a great job today.” “After meeting with him, I like Yunel,” Burke said. “I think he did a stupid thing but I think he has learned from it.”

The Blue Jays’ manager says Escobar may continue to hear some boos: “He understands whatever comes his way is part of the process. He made a terrible mistake and is going to have to be accountable.”

Olympics London 2012: Ten Out Olympians Win Medals

Joe.My.God. reports:

Ten openly gay athletes won medals at the London Olympics. Seven of them took the gold. Cyd Ziegler at SB Nation has the recap:

GOLD: Seimone Augustus [above center], USA, Basketball. The U.S. women’s basketball team was arguably the most dominant team in any sport at these Olympics.
GOLD:Carl Hester, Great Britain, Equestrian. Hester and his two teammates won Great Britain’s first-ever Team Dressage gold. Hester finished fifth overall in the individual competition.
GOLD:Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen, Netherlands, Field Hockey. The Dutch women beat Argentina, 2-0, in the gold medal match. Paumen and Dirkse van den Heuvel scored the team’s two goals.
GOLD:Megan Rapinoe, USA, Soccer. The Americans beat Japan, 2-1, in the gold medal match. Rapinoe had a key pass in the game. She also had two big goals in the semifinal match. Coach Pia Sundhage is also openly lesbian.
SILVER:Judith Arndt, Germany, Cycling. Arndt was the first out athlete to win a medal in London, taking silver in the road race time trial.
BRONZE:Edward Gal, Netherlands, Equestrian. Gal was on the bronze-medal team for Team Dressage; He finished ninth overall in the individual event.
BRONZE:Lisa Raymond, USA, Tennis. Raymond and partner Mike Bryan won the mixed doubles bronze medal.

Ziegler adds: “If Team Gay was a country, it would have finished 31st overall with seven medals, tied with Mexico, Ethiopia and Georgia. They would have beaten the medal count of such countries as Jamaica, Ireland, Argentina and India. They would have finished 21st overall for most golds (four), tied with Iran, Jamaica, Czech Republic and Korea.”

We All Want Hot Gay Aussie Diver Matthew Mitcham To Win Gold 

If I win gold at #London2012 I will dive off 10m naked to celebrate. RT @heygibbles: Will you do a skinny dip of honour if you get gold?

— Matthew Mitcham (@matthew_mitcham) August 8, 2012

London 2012: Team Gold For Britain’s Only Openly Gay Olympian Carl Hester

Pink News UK reports:

The only openly gay Olympian in Team GB has helped his equestrian team secure gold at the London Olympics.
Carl Hester rode Uthopia in the dressage’s Grand Prix Special at Greenwich Park.
The team, which included Laura Bechtolsheimer and Charlotte Dujardin, celebrated the country’s twentieth gold medal of the games, strengthening the host nation’s place third on the board.
Hester, 45, won a team gold and two individual silver medals at the European Championships in Rotterdam last year but this is his first Olympic medal.
Raised on Sark in the Channel Islands, which has no cars and where horses are therefore one of the main methods of transportation, in 1992, Hester became the youngest British rider to represent the country at the Barcelona Olympics.
He was formerly in a relationship with international dressage rider Spencer Wilton, who in 2009 the media speculated could have been a factor in the breakdown of the marriage between Katie Price and Peter Andre after he was seen with the former glamour model, who is known for her love of horse-riding, until it was revealed Wilton was gay.
Sark’s only post box will be painted gold in Hester’s honour.
Hester told the BBC’s Clare Balding: “I know it’s an old cliché but it’s a culmination of so many years of dreaming about it and it finally happening. Both those girls are cool customers. […] There it is, we finally won it.”
He added: “As with every sport that’s won a gold medal at these Games, it’s shot our sport into a totally different league.
“This is my fourth Olympics and it’s actually a weird feeling for me because three Olympics I’ve gone with no expectations and it’s actually quite easy to ride like that.
“To come to an Olympics where we were expected to get a gold gave me a frightening feeling – and I enjoyed it.
“I am looking forward to it all being over, to get the individual competition out of the way now, but it’s a truly special minute for everyone in British dressage.”
He will return to Greenwich tomorrow to compete in the individual Grand Prix Freestyle.
Hester is Britain’s only openly gay Olympian, but Lee Pearson will compete in equestrian events at the Paralympics while Claire Harvey will represent the country in the women’s sitting volleyball.
There are now 23 confirmed openly gay Olympians competing at London, about 0.16 percent of the total number of athletes.

Did The London Olympics Really Break Grindr?

Queerty reports:

Breathe easy, Britons: the realm has been saved. Grindr is once again functional in London, following a massive outage that had been blamed on an influx of horny athletes.
It’s unclear what actually caused the outage, but over the last few days, Grindr ground to a halt in England.
Tabloids leapt on the correlation: a gay hookup app failed as competitors were arriving. It must be the Olympics’ fault! Even though there are only 18 openly gay Olympic and Paralympic athletes out of 12,602.
Isn’t it maybe a tad more likely that it’s arriving tourists, and not  athletes, who are to blame? Or that it was just a glitch in a server somewhere that had nothing to do with the Olympics at all?
Whatever the cause, Grindr CEO Joel Simkhai gave the service a little kick in the pants and it’s back up and running. The company has also offered a free week of service to their paid members, so enjoy.
British readers, have you been experiencing outages? More importantly, have you hooked up with any sexy sports stars? Pics or it didn’t happen.

Brazil: Stadium Turns Pink In Support Of Gay Athlete Michael

Volleywood: reports:

A few days ago during the Superliga semifinal match between Sada Cruzeiro & Vôlei Futuro, Sada Cruzeiro fans chanted homophobic slurs towards Michael, a middle blocker from Team Vôlei Futuro. The fans kept screaming “Bicha! Bicha! Bicha!” which means “faggot” in English.
We deeply appreciate that these athletes are taking a stand to defend Michael who has confessed that the incident has been very traumatic and has admitted that he fears for the same thing to happen again. Michael shared that he could not believe what was happening and that he tried to pretend he wasn’t hearing any of the chants.
He said that he could’ve fought back by swearing at them after the match, but instead he took the highest route and left the court without saying a word. Inside the locker room, his teammates came up to him to make sure he was okay.
The incident has prompted Michael to admit to the media that he’s gay. “I’m gay. Everyone knows who I am. My team fully respects my sexuality. I have been playing for 10 years and everyone has treated me well and fair. I do not feel the need to let everyone know about my sexuality,” says Michael.

Asterisk reports:

A week has passed after the incident that forced Michael to out himself publicly, and Volleywood reports that the outpouring of support for Michael has been tremendous. The brazenness of the crowd’s bigotry seems to have surprised a lot of people and called them to action.
At the second semi-final match on last Saturday, the team wore pink warmup shirts to show support, and the team’s  libero wore a rainbow jersey during the match.

The crowd unfurled a gigantic banner reading Vôlei Futuro Against Prejudice…

Then the crowd used thundersticks emblazoned with Michael’s name to turn the stadium pink!

This is how it’s done. Standing up against prejudice.

PS: Team Vôlei Futuro won in five.