Leigh-Ann Naidoo, who in 2004 was a member of the first African team to compete in beach volleyball at the Olympic games, has become the first African member of the Gay Games Ambassadors, an international group of prominent individuals supporting the goals and principles of the quadrennial Gay Games.
‘Beach volleyball has grown incredibly in the last ten years and is making its Gay Games debut next year in Chicago, so I’m very happy to be a spokesperson to help promote next year’s competition,’ Naidoo said. ‘But, really, I’d support the Gay Games anyway because it’s been a wonderful, life-changing event for thousands of people in the LGBT community and their friends.’
Leigh-Ann and her teammate Julia Willand finished an excellent international career at the Athens Summer Olympic Games last year. Their 19th-place result was lower than they had hoped but Greece was nevertheless a wonderful place to mark the end of one chapter of their lives and move on to the next. Since Athens, Leigh-Ann moved to Chicago with her life partner Kelly Gillespie, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago.