Today the Russian Open Games I were open!

Yes, there were problems. It was easy to predict many of them and – what’s for to keep silence? – it wasn’t easy to get over them. Nevertheless, with all our solidarity, devotion to our common goal and friendship we faced the challenges and successfully left all the difficulties behind us opening the first Russian Open LGBT-Games!

Now we enriched our experience and got even more friends! It was so amazing to see happy faces at the opening ceremony and at the registration table! We thank so much everyone who were with us today and who will come at the sports venues tomorrow, on Friday, on Saturday and on Sunday! There were so many athletes from many countries of the world and many regions of Russia there. The welcoming speech was said by Konstantin Yablotsky, the President of the Russian LGBT-Sport Federation, by Elvina Yuvokaeva, the President of the Organizing Committee of the ROG, by a great Olympic athlete Greg Louganis, whom we love and appreciate so much for his visit and support, and – that was a real surprise which deeply touched our hearts! –  there also was a video-message from Julianne Moore, which she made specially for the Russian Open Games! Her words encouraged us to go ahead and win!

We thank all the participants and guests of the Opening Ceremony who was strong and brave enough to stay with us and who didn’t give up. You were here. You saw everything with your own eyes. So let the world know the truth how it was to open the First Russian Open Games on February, 26th! Please, leave the comment below this news describing what you saw, what you felt, what you experienced and how LOVE and FRIENDSHIP WINS! Write the truth and unmask the falsehood!

We love you!

Dear friends,

As we expected, things started to happen — but on a greater scale than one could imagine. Throughout the past couple of hours, several venues cancelled their agreements with the organizers of the Open Games under various pretexts. In some of these cases, the organizers were informed about ‘calls from the administration’ that venue management received.

Hilton Hotel, where the Russian LGBT Network was planning to host a public roundtable discussion, cancelled the agreement with them as well.

It is far beyond attempts to disrupt events by homophobic groups, but a targeted and strong decision of the authorities to not let public LGBT events happen through exterting pressure on venue owners.

The Russian LGBT Sport Federation are now revising their plans and locations. We will share further information tomorrow morning (Moscow time).

The information on this site is intended only for the use of those aged 18 and over

Last night, we found out that Greg Louganis, four-time Olympic champion and one of the world’s top divers ever, will be coming to the first Russian Open Games in Moscow! He announced this personally on the Games’ official Facebook page right after receiving his Russian visa.

Additionally, he posted this news on his own page, and called on his followers to support the Games:

Read more »

The information on this site is intended only for the use of those aged 18 and over

Dear friends,

We are happy to see all the participants who have already signed up, as well as the ones still registering!

We need to remind you, as the Opening Ceremony is coming up fast, that the next step for all registered athletes is registration for the individual sports, where you need to give us specific information.

This will allow the coordinators of the competitions to split you up more effectively by categories, classes and degree of participation.

For your convenience, we have uploaded the registration forms for the individual sports on the ‘Competitions’ page.

And for the most active athletes, we remind you that you may participate in several different sports announced for the first Russian Open Games, naturally so long as they don’t clash in the schedule.

You can learn about the full programme for the individual sports, and the dates and times of the competitions, here.

We await your victories!

The information on this site is intended only for the use of those aged 18 and over

Dear friends!

Participants and fans of the first Russian Open Games!

We’re happy to announce that the sports and entertainment programmes have been confirmed. So…

The Opening Ceremony of the Games will take place the evening of 26 February 2014! Come and bring your friends!

The start of competitions is scheduled for 27 February. The general sports programme runs for four days. If you haven’t yet registered, we recommend you do so in the coming week. We await your victories!

The closing of the Games will be marked by a brunch with an announcement of the results and the final awards presentations, 2 March. You can get more information about the schedule on our web site.