Tom Waddell

For the Major League Baseball player, see Tom Waddell (baseball).

Not to be confused with Thomas Waddell or Tom Waddle.

Dr. Tom Waddell (November 1, 1937 - July 11, 1987) was the gay American sportsman who founded the international sporting event called the Gay Games, which was named such after the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sued Dr. Waddell for using the word "Olympic" in the original name "Gay Olympics". The Gay Games are held every four years. The first was in San Francisco in 1982.

Biography

Tom was a football player and gymnast when he was in college at Springfield College, Massachusetts. He served as a military doctor afterward. He represented USA in decathlon at the 1968 Summer Olympics, in which he placed sixth.

In his medical career, he received his MD from Stanford University Medical School. During his life, Waddell had done research on viruses, as well as served the Saudi Royal family. This was followed by moving back to San Francisco where he established his private practice on 18th Street in the Castro neighborhood. He later was employed at a city clinic in the Civic Center area of San Francisco which to this day carries his name.

Waddell had a daughter in 1983, Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, with lesbian activist Sara Lewinstein, whom he had met while founding The Games. He died from AIDS in 1987. His battle against HIV/AIDS is one of the subjects of the award-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.

Waddell wrote an autobiography titled Gay Olympian with sports writer Dick Schaap.

External links

• Short biography