Athlete Panics Over Gay Web Site Feature

Apparently not all PR is good PR for Sebastien Gacond, a professional triathlete from Switzerland. The athlete contacted a gay sports web site, asking them to remove a link to a photo of him competing in a recent triathlon event.

"Surfing the Internet I've just found a picture of me and my name mentioned on your website," Gacond wrote to Outsports.com. "I ask you to remove my name and this picture straight away from this website."

Outsports replied to him that they only linked to the photo and did not host the photo on its server and merely used a link, and asked whether Gacond's objection was because it's a gay website.

"I know that the picture is not hosted on your server. But my name and the link is on your website," he wrote. "Yes I would like to remove it because it's a gay website. I've got absolutely nothing against gay people and the gay community but I don't want my name and image to be link there as I'm not gay ... I've got a girlfriend! Thank you for your understanding."

Outsports.com provides a daily link to a sports photo that caught the editor's eye. Well-known athletes such as Brady Quinn, Alex Rodriguez, Shaquille O'Neal, David Beckham and Tom Brady have been featured. No implication is made as to the orientation of any athlete whose photo link appears.

Gacond is the first athlete in the six years the feature has appeared to ask that a link be removed. The text on Outsports for the Gacond link said: "Gacond, a Swiss triathlete, finishes the swim portion of a recent event."

Gacond said that if the link were not removed he would "move on to the next step," though he didn't specify what that meant. Cynthia Counts, an Atlanta-based attorney specializing in First Amendment cases, said Gacond would not be able to show his privacy was invaded "since the picture simply depicts Gacond as he was at a public event."

In 2004, Counts defended Outsports after it was sued by a runner in the Los Angeles Marathon, who said his photo on a gay website would cause people to think he was gay. The suit was dismissed.