​Greetings from Ireland! I am writing to you fresh out of the Federation of the Gay Games 2015 Annual General Assembly (AGA) and I am going to share with you my experience.
 
This was my first ever AGA, I have been involved with the Gay Games since my first games which was the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne, Germany. From that point I was hooked, the experience was absolutely wonderful and it was hard to imagine that such a big event could be one of the best kept LGBT secrets. I also attended the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland, Ohio and found it to be equally an amazing experience. However I was a bit frustrated, that our representation of the contingent from Colorado seemed to be lacking, there wasn’t much support for the athletes or any kind of cohesiveness under the wing of our “City/State Team” Team Colorado. I of course had all these grand ideas and visions of what Colorado and all our athletes could potentially be at the 2018 Gay Games in Paris, France. So I decided to get involved and am now helping to lead Team Colorado to be one of the biggest and most united contingents at the 2018 Gay Games. 

​When Gus Kenworthy's came out and shared his story I had followed the news and the articles as it was released. I even read some of the comments which consisted a lot of "Who Cares?" or "Why does it even matter?" Which are all good questions, which are answered, in Gus' initial article with ESPN. In case you didn't read it my short answer here...

(My Article as Featured on the Federation of the Gay Games) My name is David Smith; I am a swimmer, gay man and one-day Olympic hopeful. I had been in the water for as long as I remember; from my mom dropping me off at the rec center to swim during her aerobics classes to joining a youth swim team. I took a few years off in high school. 7 years ago I decided I needed a change, I wasn’t happy with my life or myself, I was over weight, depressed and just not comfortable with who I was or where my life was going. I realized that there was so much more out in the world and that I had the potential to be apart of something bigger than I could ever imagine.

I was out as a gay man at the time and all I had desired and dreamed of up until that moment was finding a boyfriend and be as happy and loving as all the relationships you tend to see other people in, but that wasn’t quite working for me. When the 2008 Olympics happened I realized just what it was that I had been missing and from there I wanted to do something for myself, something more. At that moment I decided I wanted to be an Olympic Athlete, I was ready to experience the emotion of joy and accomplishment that comes from realizing your dreams.