Tom Waddell

He competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and after a career-ending injury, he started a successful medical practice in San Francisco.

His parents separated when he was in his teens, and at the age of fifteen he went to live with Gene and Hazel Waddell, for whom he did chores; they adopted him six years later.

[1] Gene Waddell is one of the men in the famous photograph of acrobats balancing atop the Empire State Building.

Originally majoring in physical education, he switched to pre-medicine following the sudden death of his best friend and co-captain of the gymnastics team, an event that moved him deeply.

In the summer of 1959, Tom worked at a children's camp in western Massachusetts, where he met his first lover, socialist Enge Menaker, then a 63-year-old man.

[1] In the 1980s Waddell was employed at the City Clinic in San Francisco's Civic Center area; after his death, it was renamed for him.

[2] In 1972, in a track meet in Hawaii, he injured his knee in a high jump, which ended his career as a competitive athlete.

The first "Gay Olympics" was to take place in San Francisco in 1982 in the form of a sports competition and arts festival.

Despite the IOC having not previously protested when other groups had used the name, they alleged that allowing "Gay Olympics" would injure them.

One was public relations man and fundraiser Zohn Artman, with whom he fell in love and began a relationship.

Although dogged by the IOC's lawsuit, Waddell lived to see the success of Gay Games II in 1986, and even participated, winning the gold medal in the javelin event.

[3] In 2013, Waddell was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display which celebrates LGBT history and people.