Swimmer takes the pain for Gay Games gains

Like many right now, Alan Godfrey’s free time is all but consumed by one activity -” training.

Godfrey is devoting close to three hours hours a day perfecting his swim stroke and time trials, in an effort to take out medal glory at the upcoming Gay Games.

As a long-time competitive swimmer -” twice awarded the NSW Masters male swimmer of the year and recipient of bronze and silver medals from FINA (the international swimming body) -” Godfrey is not one to rest on his laurels.

I’ve been a Masters Swimmer and swam at high school and right through university -” it’s something I’ve always maintained. I guess it’s just something I’ve done to keep fit all the time, otherwise I get too fat, Godfrey said jokingly.

Godfrey competed in the Gay Games in New York in 1994 and at the 2002 Sydney Games.

The 1994 games were in New York during the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, so New York was all go. I hadn’t been in too many big competitions then -” it’s an international competition, which is an exciting thing for a non-professional sports person to take part in.

I was living in North Carolina at the time, which was quite intimidating because of the redneck element. It was interesting to come to New York for a week, where everyone was free and easy and open. The whole atmosphere was amazing -” that’s definitely a reason you keep going back.

Competing is, of course, the main goal. In preparation, Godfrey swims five days a week and trains at the gym three days.

Australia perhaps doesn’t do as well at the Gay Games as they do, say, at the Masters or Olympics but I think there’ll be some really good performers this year and I expect there’ll be some competition from the Americans, and the Dutch and Germans in particular will be the ones to watch out for.