Rotterdam's EuroGames seduce the Dutch

For five days in July the Dutch city of Rotterdam hosted the 13th edition of EuroGames, a sporting and cultural festival aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population. It brings together 3,500 athletes from 44 countries gathered to compete in 21 sporting disciplines. On the eve of the 20 July opening, RFI sped up from Paris on the Thalys International train to meet Hans van Dop, the Eurogames male co-president, as he likes to label himself.

Eurogames2011.eu

“We aim to be visible for five days in a big city,” explains van Dop, before praising the City of Rotterdam and Rotterdam Marketing for its support. The former gymnast insists his organisation is more interested in the image the games projects than the competition itself. And he is only too happy to quote the founding father of the Olympic Games to back his philosophy.

“Pierre de Coubertin always said competing is more important than winning. That is why our slogan is colour. That stands for Celebration, Outgoing, Loving, Outreach, Understanding and Respect”.

But it has not been plain sailing since the games started in The Hague in 1992. I put it to van Dop that political barriers are growing in many European nations that participate.

“Yes, that’s a tough question,” the co-president admits. “Here, we have all the help we want from the city council. But the next edition is in Budapest and the political realities there are completely different.”

Van Dop and his Eurogames hope to change attitudes in countries like Hungary , which is currently led by the ultra-conservative right and its president Viktor Orban. Indeed, the LGBT sporting meet believes it has a universal appeal that goes beyond sexual persuasions:

“You don’t have to be gay to participate, and we made that clear when we invited athletes to participate. So, we have many straight sportspeople involved. Rotterdam has representatives from 174 different nations living here. The diversity will therefore be all-round”.

Of the 21 sporting events organised, the highest-profile was probably the same-sex ballroom dancing. This has been upgraded to a European championship and was followed by several thousand spectators at the Ahoy centre that had hosted the North Sea Jazz Festival just a fortnight earlier.

The five days of sports climaxed with a concert by Sister Sledge, followed by the likes of Mayor Arno Brok and Olympic Silver medallist Johan Kenkhuis. All attention now turns next year’s fourteenth edition in Budapest .