Track and Field Athlete, Social Rights Activist. A Olympic decathlete, he was the founder of the Gay Games. Born Thomas Flubacher, as a youth he pursued the sports of gymnastics, football and the decathlon eventually majoring in physical education at Springfield College before graduating in pre-medicine and competing his education at the New Jersey College of Medicine. He participated in the African-American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama in 1965, served as a preventive-medicine officer and paratrooper in the United States Army beginning in 1966. He was a member of the United States Olympic Track and Field Team that competed in the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, Mexico, where he finished sixth out of field of thirty-two athletes in the Decathlon. His interest in sports and the Olympic spirit lead him to organize the Gay Olympic Games in 1982. The name, however, was changed to the Gay Games due to the objection and lawsuit by the United States Olympic Committee for the use of the word "Olympic," in a case that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Waddell's life was tragically cut short by AIDS, dying at the age of forty-nine. His legacy, the Gay Games, are held every four years and has become the largest sport and culture event in the world open to all who wish to participate.
Track and Field Athlete, Social Rights Activist. A Olympic decathlete, he was the founder of the Gay Games. Born Thomas Flubacher, as a youth he pursued the sports of gymnastics, football and the decathlon eventually majoring in physical education at Springfield College before graduating in pre-medicine and competing his education at the New Jersey College of Medicine. He participated in the African-American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama in 1965, served as a preventive-medicine officer and paratrooper in the United States Army beginning in 1966. He was a member of the United States Olympic Track and Field Team that competed in the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, Mexico, where he finished sixth out of field of thirty-two athletes in the Decathlon. His interest in sports and the Olympic spirit lead him to organize the Gay Olympic Games in 1982. The name, however, was changed to the Gay Games due to the objection and lawsuit by the United States Olympic Committee for the use of the word "Olympic," in a case that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Waddell's life was tragically cut short by AIDS, dying at the age of forty-nine. His legacy, the Gay Games, are held every four years and has become the largest sport and culture event in the world open to all who wish to participate.
Bio by: Samuel Taylor Geer
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