CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Mark Wussler remembers a time, not too long ago, when his life was divided into two separate worlds.

Mark Wussler remembers a time, not too long ago, when his life was divided into two separate worlds.

Wussler is gay. And he is an athlete. And at that time, the two did not go together.

"There were a lot of people back in 1982 who didn't think a gay man could do certain things," Wussler said. "The words gay and athlete didn't really go together."

But then he went to San Francisco and swam in a race that made his two worlds into one.

Wussler competed in the first ever Gay Games 20 years ago, an international competition that now draws 12,000 athletes and 250,000 spectators from around the world. His swimming career took off.

"All the angst so many gay men felt about athletic competition was just blown away," Wussler said. "My athletic performance was incredible. I beat my times from my state championships in high school, when I was swimming seven to eight hours a day. The Gay Games have become such a motivating factor in my athletic career."

Wussler, 46, of San Diego's College Area, is now a nationally ranked masters swimmer, in the top 10 in the country in three swimming events.

This week, Wussler will be heading to Sydney, Australia, to participate in the sixth Gay Games, planned for Saturday through Nov. 9.

He will be among 200 San Diegans, including 40 members of Front Runners, a local gay running club, and 25 members of Different Strokes Swim Team, who will be competing in swimming, diving, water polo and triathlon events.

All the athletes are members of Athletes in Motion, or AIM, an umbrella organization of gay sports leagues in San Diego that counts more than 2,000 athletes as members.

"It provides a healthy, alternative thing to going out to bars," said Ken Adelson, secretary of AIM. "It's a good, healthy way to get out, do what you like to do, meet people."

AIM also organizes the giant San Diego contingent that will be a part of the more than 12,000 athletes from 70 countries at the upcoming games.

The Gay Olympic Games, as it was know then, was started in 1982 by Dr. Tom Waddell, a San Francisco doctor who was a decathlete on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team. Shortly before the first games opened in 1982, the U.S. Olympic Committee barred the organization from using the Olympic name in its title.

"Volunteers had to literally scrape off by hand the word from all medals, and posters and signs had to be destroyed," Rick Peterson, a co-president of the Federation of Gay Games, wrote in the 1994 book, "Unity: A Celebration of Gay Games IV and Stonewall." "It was a nightmare."

The Gay Games have been held every four years since, in San Francisco (twice); Vancouver, Canada; New York City; Amsterdam; and now Australia.

There are no minimum requirements to compete in the 31 sports, which include basketball, bowling, softball, cycling, tennis and wrestling, among others. This inclusiveness is a big part of the experience, participants say, and the athletes who finish last get just as much applause as those who finish first.

"The whole philosophy of the games is just to do your best," said runner John Lockhart of Hillcrest, at 71 one of the oldest Gay Games competitors. "It's not cut-throat competitive. It's very accepting of everybody."

That's not to say there aren't world-class athletes at the Gay Games.

Many runners, swimmers, divers, sailors and soccer players compete in national and international masters competitions. Some hold records, and others are members of national teams.

Jennifer Stary of La Mesa will be competing in nine track and field events at the games, including javelin, shot put and hurdles. Stary has been an athlete since she was 14, and now competes nationally in the 45-49 age group. She has been a member of the U.S. National Track and Field Team, placed 11th in the 1980 Olympic Trials in the pentathlon and was a Nike-sponsored athlete.

"To me, this is a sport I can participate in that is also a gay community celebration," Stary said. "It's like an extension of my track and field career."

Athletes say they have many reasons for going to the games. Some are eager to compete. Others go for fun, tacking on vacations such as snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef or hiking the Milford Track.

Thomas Long of Hillcrest is going, like many, to remember his friends. Long will be dedicating his diving performance at this year's games to two of his friends, both divers who had competed in the games, but since have died of AIDS-related illnesses.

"We are there to compete and have fun," Long said. "But we are also there to reflect on the legacy of the AIDS issue. Many of us have lost many friends who can't go with us."

John Plander reflects on that legacy, too, and he is going to the games to celebrate life. Plander never thought he would live to be 40, so on the heels of that birthday, he finds a lot of cause for joy.

"I have AIDS, so that's part of the excitement of turning 40," said Plander, a sailor who lives in Mission Beach. "Every time I do something, it's cause for celebration. Being gay and having HIV is inexorably linked, so these events for me are also a time to bond and meet other people who are successfully battling a terminal illness."

Plander was the subject of the HBO documentary "Rock the Boat," which chronicled a 1997 race he participated in with an all HIV-positive crew from California to Hawaii. Only three crew members knew anything about sailing, which is another reason Plander is thrilled about these games. He will be sailing with two other good, gay sailors – something that is hard to find, he said.

"Sailboat racing is not a very gay-friendly activity," Plander said. "Think about the yacht clubs, a lot of old money, a lot of stodgy people, a lot of conservative political attitudes. . . . Racing is so much around yacht clubs and that social scene. It is not very welcoming to gay people."

Part of the idea of the games is to break down barriers, which makes the event – and the eight-day party that precedes it – as much a pride event as an athletic one.

Though it may not seem a big deal in California, Wussler said, in small towns across America and in other parts of the world, gay athletes still feel oppressed. Even in professional sports, there are few openly gay athletes.

"Gay athletes from Iraq, from Iran, and India and Japan and China and other countries will be there," Wussler said. "It's much, much more difficult to be an out gay person in some of those countries. So, it's important for me to go there and be able to tell my story to those guys who are struggling."