Young Jefferson McCarley never felt welcome on the playing field. But now 32-year-old McCarley will be traveling to the other side of the earth to avenge his stolen childhood.
Nov. 2-9, Gay Games VI will be held in Sydney, Australia and Jefferson McCarley will be there. The first openly gay member of Chicago’s XXX Racing/Clif Bar Team, McCarley is competing in the 16-kilometer cross-country mountain bike competition at the sport (intermediate) level. The event will take place in the scenic Blue Mountains approximately two hours from Sydney. It is all off-road biking along a single thin ribbon of track zigg-zagging in and out of trees. The course includes hills, jumping logs and creek crossing. At press time there were about 200 people registered in bike competitions, around 80 of which are mountain bike entrants.
During mid-high school McCarley came to the realization that he is gay. He also found that the basketball court, karate studio, soccer field and especially the gym locker room were places he was hated. Since those early high school experiences, McCarley has considered team sports some of the most homophobic institutions around, and it never crossed his mind to be an athlete. All that changed eight years ago. Together with thousands of other fans, McCarley stood in New York’s Yankee Stadium during the closing ceremonies of Gay Games IV and he was transformed.
McCarley’s introduction to mountain biking came a few years prior while he was living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in his mid-20s. Through the serendipity of life, McCarley purchased and ran a thriving bicycle shop for two and a half years called Condado Bicycle. What’s so remarkable is at the outset he didn’t speak Spanish, know anything about running a small business or a thing about bicycles. Luckily, the staff he hired did. They were avid mountain bikers and McCarley had no immunity to their contagious enthusiasm for the sport. He was hooked.
Back in Chicago, murmurs about Gay Games VI began and McCarley found himself reminiscing about his experience in New York City. With his new-found passion and taste for competition, Sydney was a natural conclusion.
McCarley plans to take some advice a friend once gave him, “If you don’t win, take heart, you didn’t come in last. And if you do come in last be proud that you finished. And if you can’t finish, at least you showed up at the race, and that takes a lot more courage than most people have.” He adds, “Without the inspiration of the Gay Games, I would have never joined a sports team or crossed a finish line. Soon I’ll be competing with athletes from all over the world.”
Team Chicago, info@teamchicago.org, (312) 409-5155 or visit their Web site at www.teamchicago.org.
Also see www.gaygames.org.