July 28, 1976: An Olympian good as gold.

The number of openly gay Olympic athletes is quite small today, especially when you consider that it has been 24 years since former decathlete Tom Waddell came out in The Advocate. Reporter Randy Shilts profiled Waddell, who took sixth place at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. "Waddell's credentials in this realm are impressive," Shilts wrote. "At age 30, a time when many athletes are cashing their retirement checks, Waddell took second place in the American Athletic Union decathlon national championships. After rounding off that year with an Olympic bid, he went on to set the current world's record for decathletes in the 34-year-old age group. Despite the fact that Waddell, at 38, still has a body most men left behind in high school, you won't be hearing any stereotyped jock talk from his mustached lips." Waddell, then a doctor in San Francisco, told Shilts that he saw being gay as "neither a salient nor reproachful part of his character."

"I never encountered a homosexual situation the whole time I was in sports," said Waddell, who went on to organize the first Gay Games in 1982. "When I go to a track meet there are all kinds of attractive bodies there, but I'm not watching bodies, I'm watching a performance. I'm watching someone jumping over a hurdle, and that can be pure poetry."

Find this 1976 Advocate article in its entirely at www.advocate.com