VIII. Gay Games Cologne 2010

14 teams are battling in 44 games for the gold medal in water polo

“Water polo is a very fast, tactical and demanding sport”, explains Sonja van de Logt, referee at the VII. Gay Games Cologne 2010. She is speaking from her own experience as she’s playing water polo for 37 years herself and is currently trainer of the Telekom ladies’ team. Especially appealing is the fact that it’s a combination of swimming and ball game – and also that you can play it until a high age. “Most of the players here are young”, Sonja says, “but there’s no reason why a 60 year old shouldn’t participate.”

There are 14 water polo teams registered for the Gay Games hailing from places like Copenhagen, Manchester, Sydney or Amsterdam. Bernhard Friz has come with his team from Toronto in Canada. “Our team comprises 24 people, eleven in the A-team, 13 in the B-team”, Friz explains. Friz has already participated in the Games in Sydney and Chicago. What he likes most about water polo is the fact that brain and muscles are equally demanded. “Water polo is for me the best sport in the world!”, he concludes.

The preliminaries where every team has to face all the other teams run until Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon is reserved for the placement games. The final starts at 4 p.m. on Friday.

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