Gold Post Boxes for Uniqueness

Apparently the Royal Mail have stated that they will not paint a mail box gold for Northern Ireland's own golden girl Kelly Gallagher. They say the the 59 gold post boxes for the Olympians and 50 for the Paralympians were for a unique occurrence.

With 109 of them that is new definition of unique.

But initially there were only 106 of them all of which were on the GB part of Team Great Britain and Norther Ireland. The other three were awarded for five gold medals one for Bethany Firth in Seaforde, County Down, and for their two gold medals apiece but just one box Michael McKillop in Glengormley, Antrim and Jason Smyth in Eglington, Londonderry. These three were UK nationals who competed for the Irish Paralympic team.

However, the case for uniqueness is strong for Kelly Gallagher. She is the first Winter Paralympian ever to win a gold since the first Winter Paralympics in 1976. Plus she is the first GB athlete to win on snow in either the Olympics of Paralympics since 1924.

Therefore I am suggesting if the Royal Mail really want to honour uniqueness there should be 8 more gold mail boxes.

Firstly we need a gold mail bow in Mottingham, Kent to honour Launceston Elliot. Although he was born in Tasmania to Scottish parents it was here that Britain's first gold medalist is listed in both the 1891 and 1901 census. At 21 he won that historic, and unique, first medal in those first 1896  games in the one handed lift. We did another Gold in those first Games but painting a Mail Box gold in O'Connell Street, Dublin to honour John Pius Boland's gold in tennis is asking for trouble.

Next up we need the Royal Mail to say #Ilovecurling and provide Scotland with four more gold mail boxes, indeed South Lanarkshire would get three for itself. Edinburgh would need to find another one to paint gold for Robin Welsh, Biggar would deserve one for Tom Murray,  and f there are two mail boxes in Carnwath they need painting for the father and son team of William Kilgour Jackson and his son Laurence. William was the skip in the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France in 1924 of which the other three all member of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club brought home the gold.

There will of course be purists who insist that Kennsington should receive one gold post box instead of Scotland's four to mark the fact that Madge Syers took GB's first gold medal in an ice or snow sport in the 1908 London Olympics. So maybe we should provide one for here uniqueness as well, so make that nine more gold mail boxes.

There will have to either be one in Lacashire where she is from or Watford where she now resides for Margaret Maughan. She was the archer who was the first GB Paralympian to win gold in the 1960 Games which saw 28 gold medals coming back from Rome that year.

As well as these six seven deserving firsts we will also mark the success earlier this week with boxes in Bangor, County Down and Chatham, Kent for Kelly and her guide Charlotte Evans, for their acheivement in the Visually Impaired Super-G.

This would lead to a total of nine new post boxes marking all the firsts now that we have them all. And there will be five for men and four for women.

#Principle6 is for all not just the Olympic Zone

The Sochi Olympics*

*Usual Terms and Conditions may or may not apply

While the Opening Ceremony was underway in Sochi this was the scene in Red Square, Moscow.


Principle 6 of the Olympic charter states:

Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

This is clear discrimination against people on the ground of otherwise. President Putin says people can be LGBT as long as they don't touch the children. I see no children in this video.

Thomas Bach in his opening speech last night said:

This is the Olympic Message the athletes spread to the host country and to the whole world. Yes, it is possible to strive even for the greatest victory with respect for the dignity of your competitors. Yes, Yes, it is possible - even as competitors - to live together under one roof in harmony, with tolerance and without any form of discrimination for whatever reason.

It was a part of the message that American broadcaster NBC is facing criticism for editing out.

Yes the host nation if it is abusing Principle 6 of the charter in incompatible with being part of the Olympic Movement. This is what was happening last night and it is time that IOC actually specified that otherwise does include sexual orientation and not leave it vague, and then take action.

Putin and his non-traditional flame

Vladimir Putin has passed the law that there should be no propaganda of "non-traditional sexual relationships", he says it will affect the youth of Russia. Why is it then that Alina Kabayeva, who is rumoured to be his mistress, should be the last person before those who lit the cauldron to hold the Olympic flame?

The other people who carried the Torch in the stadium were

• Maria Sharapova, she may only have had one Olympic silver medal, but she was world number 1 in tennis and was actually born in Sochi. 
• Three time Olympic Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion Aleksander Karelin, he has a career record of 887 wins and only two losses. 
• Double Olympic pole-vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva. 
• Three time Olympic champion Ice Hockey goaltender Vladislav Tretiak
• Irina Rodnina who won three successive pairs gold medals in figure skating.

Kabayeva has one Olympic gold and one bronze in rhythmic gymnastics is one gold and one bronze. She hardly ranks amongst the great Olympians. Indeed but by an unfortunate career-ending injury to Daria Kondakova ahead of London 2012 who had far more world medals in a shorter career she may well have even been second to a local Sochi rhythmic gymnast. But of course there are other gymnasts from Russia who are multiple gold medalists.

Indeed the living Russian woman with the most gold medals is a Winter Olympian is Lidiya Skoblikova has six gold medals in speed skating from the 1960 and 64 Olympics. This is not just the most by a clean Russian woman but a record for her sport. Yes she may be 74 but she has six gold medals in an winter Olympic event.

So yes there are questions as to why it appears that Putin managed to get his alleged mistress to hand the torch over to the lighters of the cauldron. Indeed you can almost imagine that he had wanted her to be one later in the order only to be talked out of it by some official or other.

Team LGB at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics

Some of my LGBT friends have been calling for a boycott of the Games that got underway yesterday with some qualification competitions, but I have said we should always let the athletes go. The main reason is that without the athletes from accepting nations being there the Russia media would not tell the truth to their own nationals about why such nations were absent.

Brack Obama made a point of selected three LGB athletes to the delegation that is going to the the 2014 Games while he is staying away. But there are a small number of active athletes who will be taking part and some of them have come out recently as a show of defiance to the anti-propaganda laws in Russia.

So who are the out LGB athletes who are going to Sochi.

Ireen Wüst - Netherlands

The Dutch speed skater is going to her third Winter Olympics looking to add to the two golds and bronze she won in Turin and Vancouver. Yes, this bisexual sports woman, who does not fit Russia's idea of "traditional sexual relations", has reached the top of her sport. She won gold in the 3,000m in 2006 in Turin in the long track version of the sport, adding the bronze that year in the 1,500m. That year at a mere 19 she became her nation's youngest ever Winter Olympic Champion. Last time she took the gold in the 1,500m in Vancouver.

She will be taking part in five events in Sochi, the women's 1,000m, 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m and as part of the Dutch team in the women's pursuit. In October of 2009 a Dutch magazine she casually stated that she had been in a relationship with her girlfriend since May of that year.

Sanne van Kerkhof - Netherlands

Still with the Dutch there is another speed skating veteren. Although Sanne does her skating on the short track. She just missed out on a medal in Vancouver in 2010 when the women's 3,000m pursuit team came in 4th for the Dutch ladies.

She also happened to be the girlfriend that Wüst was referring to before those Games in Vancouver. They have since split up but are both looking forward to their second Games as out athletes.

She will again be taking part in the women's pursuit looking to step unto the podium.


Cheryl Maas - Netherlands

The Dutch provide yet another of our openly out athletes and this time we head off the ice and unto snow. Cherly missed out on the 2010 Games, but had been in the 2006 half pipe competition.

After she qualified once again she was critical of the IOC offering the Game to a nation with a Human Rights record such as Russia's and when asked about whether she would boycott the Games. She said:

"If you do that, everyone must participate, it is because human rights. This goes beyond homosexuality. If only gay people engage in a boycott, it does not help."

She is married to Norwegian former Olympic snowboarder Stine Brun Kjeldaas who won the silver medal in the women's half pipe at the 1998 Games and was part of the BBC commentary team in 2010.

Barbara Jezeršek - Slovenia

Finally we get to an athlete from a nation other than the Netherlands and we add another sport to the pantheon.
T
Slovenia's cross county skier Barbara Jezeršek is probably not expected to feature in the medals unlike those Dutch competitors. Her best individual performance having been 34th while as part of a Slovenian relay team she has been 9th.

She has been out since 2008 and will be the only out athlete from the former Eastern Bloc countries in Sochi.


Next we have the two athletes who came out publicly as a result of the new law in Russia.

Anastasia Bucsis - Canada

The 24 year old skater made her Olympic debut at her home Games in Vancouver four years ago, although she wasn't part of the Canadian gold rush.

She took part in the women's 500m long track speed skating as her only event four years ago recording the 34th best time. The following year she game out to her friends and family but it was last year at Calgary Pride that she made a public stance about her sexuality.  She said:

"I could never promote that message of concealing who you are with all of this going on in Russia. I’m kind of happy that I did it on my own terms."

Again she will just be taking part in the  shortest and fastest of the disciples in the long track speed skating as her only event.

Belle Brockhoff - Australia

The youngest of the LGB athletes taking part in Sochi 2014 will be the Australian snowboard cross athlete. Like Bucsis she came out publicly last summer as a result of the new law being introduced in Russia.

Speaking at the time the twenty year old said:

"I have a feeling that I would have to kinda go back into the closet a little bit because I don't want to risk my, like, you know, safety, being arrested or deported. I want to be able to compete and live my dream and become an Olympian. That's always what I've wanted to do. ... I honestly find it a little bit disrespectul and a little bit sad not only to me but to other athletes and it's my dream, and I want to be able to be who I am, I want to be proud of who I am and be proud of all the work I've done to get into the Olympics and not have to deal with this kind of law." 

However, speaking last month she said:

"The Australian Olympic Committee has been really supportive and they want me to be safe. They don't recommend me waving a [rainbow] flag around which I won't do.

"The most I'll do is hold up six fingers to represent Principle Six. Possibly I'll do it on camera here or there, and maybe after the heats of my event." 

I know Belle won't be allowed to wear her Principle 6 T-Shirt anywhere near the Games, however, I along with many other will be wearing mine tonight while I watch the Opening Ceremony and I'll be watching out on Sunday 16th to see if she does use six fingers.

From the list there are sadly no openly gay men at the Sochi Games as sadly New Zealand Short-Track Speed Skater Blake Skjellerup who missed out by one spot on qualifying. However, last November while he was competing in Russia he did meet some LGBT activists secretly.

About that meeting he said:

"It was emotional to hear what they were going through. They were afraid on so many levels. The law is very discriminative and oppressive and it's leading to greater violence against LGBT people. At the weekend two gunmen opened fire at a gay club in Moscow and such acts are not uncommon. For many the only choice is to go undergound."

There are also a number of openly LGBT broadcasters, commentators and analysts attending these Games from our own Clare Balding to self-confessed Russia-phile and former USA Ice Skater Johnny Weir.

Principle 6 #Sochi2014

We are only 10 days away from the first qualification events in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. The following day, Friday 7th February as we lead up to the opening ceremony I will be wearing a Principle 6 T-shirt as a mark that although I support the individual athletes I do not think it is right that a nation that fails to uphold Olympic Principle 6 in the day to day live of its citizens in a fitting situation in which to hold the Games.

So what does Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter state?

6. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race,religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

Yet we are heading to Sochi, in Russia that does discriminate in the otherwise category. There is a law on the books against the promotion on non-traditional family values. In other words the LGBT community do not fit into that "ideal". Today the Mayor of Sochi, while saying he is happy to welcome gay people to his city believes they will be the first gay people ever there.

Seeing as Sochi is also a Russian resort town the odds are that this is not the case.

Seeing as Sochi has a population of ⅓ million people the probability is that there are some currently living there or who have done in the past (possibly even the near recent past). That would be a city the size of Belfast, in a nation that has only had homosexual activity legalised for  about a decade less than here in Northern Ireland. So you would have to put it at about a decade ago Northern Ireland visibility, although maybe a bit further back when you consider the way that homophobia there has existed for a number of years.

Also seeing as there are gay and gay friendly clubs in Sochi, who is going there.

I'm just waiting for the first LGBT residents in Sochi to go up to the Mayor's office to introduce themselves.

Is the IOC having a 1968 moment?

The International Olympic Committee was asked by Gay Star News if they were going to 'make sure the LGBT community in Russia can have a visible, proud, safe presence at the games.'

The response from the IOC was 'Regarding your suggestions, the IOC has a clear rule laid out in the Olympic Charter (Rule 50) which states that the venues of the Olympic Games are not a place for proactive political or religious demonstration.'

Rule 50 states:

No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.

The penalty for violating this clause is “disqualification or withdrawal of the accreditation of the person concerned” without appeal. This is what happened to Tommie Smith and John Carlos for making their Black Power salute on the podium in Mexico in 1968 after the men's 200m.

However, near the start of the Olympic Charter are the fundamental principles of Olympism, I'm highlighting just a few of them:

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the
   qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism
   seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good
   example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles
2. The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development
   of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the
   preservation of human dignity.
4. The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of
   practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which
   requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
5.  
6. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race,
   religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic
   Movement. 
   
7. Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter

   and recognition by the IOC.

My question to the IOC would be where is the preservation of human dignity by the hosts of the XXII Winter Olympic Games. The practice of sport and spectating is a human right, which should be defended for all without discrimination of any kind. Yet where does a same-sex couple whether a competitor of spectator stand if they are caught holding hands, or maybe kissing their partner after successfully winning a medal?

The IOC itself allowed for a Pride House at both the 2010 Winter Olympics and in London last summer. They had a place where LGBT athletes and supporters could be highlighted and supported in the end to discrimination. As I wrote on the lead up to the Games there was a Team LGB that was visible in London. There is a Team LGB that is hoping to be selected for Sochi.

There will be LGB athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, some may like Matthew Mitcham after Beijing 2008 been seen with their partner after they have competed. There are also LGBT spectators from around the world who are Olympic-philes, people such as myself. Some will go to any length to watch a Games, or to be in the area where the Games are taking place to soak up the atmosphere. How are the fundamentals of Olympism, going to help them should the new laws in Russia with such a loose definition of propaganda? The talk of coming down on 'non-traditional sexual orientation' does not offer much hope.

Is it time to add coherently sexual orientation into the list of discrimination listed in the Olympic charter rather than including it under 'or otherwise'?

The IOC is heading towards  a repeat of 1968. Remember their banning of the two athletes who gave the black power salute didn't prevent their message from being heard, it is heard loud and clear even to this day. Do we have modern day martyrs ready to show the IOC and the Russian National Olympic Committee that such a prejudicial and discriminatory law has not place in a member of the Olympic movement?

Why we should go to Sochi

I've been giving this some thought over recent days. With all the talk between the IOC and the Russians about how the application of the anti-gay propaganda law would be enforced in next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi. This has included the first arrests of foreign nations who were interviewing people was a documentary story on the law change.

At first their were calls to boycott Russian vodkas. But I scanned the shelf at Tesco. Smirnoff is distilled in the UK, Stolichnaya is distilled in Russia but bottled in Latvia, in the EU, there are others that sound Russian that actually come from Belarus, Ukraine or Finland. If I were a big Vodka drinker it would really need a lot of knowledge to check the labels as some boycotts would actually be affecting jobs outside Russia, and the home distilled stuff would still be getting produced and drunk in Russia. Earlier today a New York bar and its customers poured Stolichnaya vodka down the drains outside the Russian Embassy, however the company has risked a lot back home when it released this statement opposing the law and supporting LGBT equality.

Then there was the call to boycott the Games themselves.

Now as some of you know I am a bit of a sportsman who once held hopes of appearing the Olympics, and until bowls qualifies I fear that day will never come, but if it does I will try and compete for Ireland. I love the Olympics, if any of your read my histories of the Summer Games or my reports of the Games last summer will attest. I'm not one for boycotting the games, mainly because the people it affects most are the athletes who have given up a four year cycle of their life to try and peak at the right time to win that medal. Think how many of you currently have a goal of what you are going to do in four years time? How many of you are willing to sacrifice more or less everything in order to achieve that goal?

But there is another reason why those athletes should be allowed to go to the Games. The nations that are most likely to object to the draconian nature of the law change in Russia are also those nations that are most likely to have the most openly LGB athletes and allies in their party. They are the nations that are most likely to make a stand live on Russian TV that is carrying the Games as the Olympic Broadcasters. People like openly gay New Zealand speed skater Blake Skellerup who said he will be wearing a rainbow badge. Others both LGB and straight may be encouraged to do likewise.

These Games could well be to LGBT rights what the Blank Panther salute was in Mexico in 1968 for black civil rights in the USA. To boycott them means that the reason for the boycott will probably not get reported in Russia. I know things have moved on a bit since I didn't learn that Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait until I exited the USSR and found myself back in Warsaw, 10 days later. But the press there will still be very careful about how they report a boycott, especially because of the new law. But by turning up en masse and making a statement the athletes of the world can show the LGBT population of Russia that we support them.

Others will no doubt disagree with me. But others will agree that unless we follow the example of Tilda Swinton (right) and make a statement that the people in Russia can actually see and hear we are not helping those who are LGBT in Russia. The Russian LGBT network has called not to boycott the Games but to boycott homophobia.

They talk about not knowing and LGBT people, probably because they are scared to say who they are. We are out and proud and those who support us are too, it is time to be proud that there is nothing unnatural about being LGBT and that a law against being born this way was remarkably one of the things that Russians fought and died for in the second World War.

Whether as Russian legislator Vitaly Milonov says the law will be enforced the Games come during a period known as the Olympic Truce. I would like to see whoever replaces Jacques Rogge as President of the IOC in September to make a mention of human sexuality not being a barrier to participation in the Games, in his speech at the Opening Ceremony. Having heard that sort of statement made in a few pulpits in my day I can assure you that it warms the hearts of those who feel oppressed in such situations normally. It can give them hope.

So I say we send the athletes to Sochi 2014 and provide them with rainbow badges to wear.