Tom Waddell

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Tom Waddell (birth name Thomas Joseph Michael Flubacher ; born November 1, 1937 in Paterson , New Jersey , † July 11, 1987 in San Francisco ) was an American doctor, Olympian and activist for gay and lesbian equality ( LGBT ).

Waddell grew up in a conservative Catholic family in Massachusetts . In his youth he was active as a football player and track and field athlete. His parents separated in his teenage years; He then moved at the age of 15 to his ballet teacher Hazel Waddell and her husband Gene, who adopted him six years later. He attended college in Springfield , Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship . There he was successful as a football player and gymnast and eventually specialized in the decathlon . Having originally gym teacher wanted to be, he transferred after the sudden death of a fellow Turners for Medicine and attended to Seton Hall University is part of New Jersey College of Medicine.

In 1966 he was called up for military service and trained as a parachutist and preventive medicine. Surprisingly for him, however, he was not assigned to the Vietnam War , as he had feared, but instead sent to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. There he reached sixth place among 33 applicants with 7720 points (100 m: 11.3 s, distance: 7.47 m, ball: 14.45 m, high: 2.01 m, 400 m: 51.2 s, 100 m hurdles: 15.3 s, discus: 43.73 m, pole: 4.50 m, javelin 63.70 m, 1500 m: 5: 04.50 min). Waddell showed his solidarity with his teammates John Carlos and Tommie Smith , who protested against the discrimination against the Afro-American population with bowed heads and raised fists at the award ceremony.

After his discharge from the army, he continued his medical studies at Stanford University in 1970 and received his doctorate. He gave up his sporting career in 1972 after a knee injury. In the course of his medical career, Waddell did research on viruses and worked intermittently as a personal physician for the Saudi royal family in Saudi Arabia . He then returned to the United States and was employed in San Francisco at a local clinic in the Mission District that currently bears his name.

Waddell, who was now openly gay, founded the San Francisco Arts & Athletic Association in July 1981 to bring the Gay Olympic Games to life. After a dispute with the IOC in Gay Games renamed, they were held for the first time in 1982 in San Francisco.

While preparing for the Gay Games, he met the lesbian activist Sara Lewinstein. Their daughter was born in 1983, and the couple married in 1985.

In June 1986, Waddell was diagnosed with AIDS . Nevertheless, he started javelin throwing at the second Gay Games in August this year and won the competition.

In 1987 Waddell died of complications from his AIDS illness. His fight against the disease was filmed in the documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt .

A few months before his death, Waddell and his fellow athlete and author Dick Schaap began work on an autobiography entitled Gay Olympian, which was published in 1996.

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personal data
SURNAME Waddell, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flubacher, Thomas Joseph Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American decathlete, doctor, and LGBT activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Paterson , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1987
Place of death San Francisco