Tag Archives: William Bridel

Hurtling Headfirst Down Mountains and Into the History Books

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

{Welcome to part two in our Winter Olympic Series, written by William Bridel!}

I am frequently reminded of Dr. Lindsay Alcock’s humility, despite an incredible athletic career and her many accomplishments in other spheres of life. Just over a year ago, I was interviewing Lindsay for my project exploring the role of sport in Calgary’s queer history, and while we’d known each other since 2014 (not long after I moved to the city, we were both on a panel addressing homophobia in sport and became friends), I found myself learning more and more about her that day. I am proud to share part of her story here.

Born in Bearspaw, Alberta, in 1977, Alcock’s family relocated to Cochrane soon after. With limited sports opportunities for girls at the time, Alcock played soccer on boys’ teams and participated in many school sports. She and her family were also avid downhill skiers, though—as she was quick to point out—only recreationally. Still, the 1988 Olympic Winter Games left an indelible mark on Alcock, as she and her family took in many of the events. As a university student, Alcock joined the University of Calgary’s track and field team as a sprinter and also began working at Canada Olympic Park during the summers—an experience that would change her athletic trajectory.

“I had a tourist ask me one day: ‘Why don’t you do any of these sports?’ I didn’t really have a good answer. So, I thought, well, if anything, I can maybe help my tours by telling them exactly what it feels like to go headfirst on a sled down an ice track, an ice chute. I toyed between ski jumping and doing skeleton. And ultimately skeleton was the most kamikaze in my mind. So based on that tourist’s feedback, I decided to sign up and pay $50 to take a ‘discover skeleton’ class. This would’ve been in the fall of 1998.”

*Alcock competing at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Photo retrieved from the Canadian Olympic Committee website.*

Rising through the Canadian skeleton ranks quickly, within two years of that intro-to-skeleton experience, Alcock qualified to represent Canada on the America’s Cup and then the World Cup teams. While competing internationally, Alcock secured enough top six placements in 2001-2002 that she qualified for her first of two Olympic Winter Games, just four years after being introduced to the sport! At the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, she finished in sixth place. In the 2003-2004 season, Alcock won the overall Women’s Skeleton World Cup title. She continued to train, with eyes set on the 2006 Olympics, which were being held in Italy.

In the late 1990s, Alcock began coming out to family and friends, and in the early 2000s to teammates and others within the sport, and later more publicly. This made her one of only a few queer Canadian athletes actively competing in elite sport while open about their sexuality; Nancy Drolet, a national team ice hockey standout, and wheelchair basketball star Danielle Peers were others.[1] Alcock describes the support she received from the vast majority of teammates in a positive way. For example, she noted that she would bring the boxset of The L Word on tour, and some of her teammates would sit down and watch episodes with her. They’d also take her, when feasible, to queer villages in various cities on the tour. Alcock also began training and racing with a Pride sticker on her sled, visible to teammates, competitors, spectators, and television cameras. At the same time, she did experience indirect and direct homophobia while on the circuit, and so was grateful for the solidarity experienced with the majority. This allowed her to remain steadfast in being her authentic self after she had come out.

There were still challenges, however. Alcock shared one story about attaining a sponsorship deal—a rarity for skeleton and for women athletes at the time—with a local company:

“I remember signing the contract for this sponsorship, which was a really big deal. It was quite a bit of money. And it was meaningful for my everyday life. I literally had the pen in hand and then I finally just…I put it down and I said, ‘you just need to know, I’m not gonna hide this. I’m a lesbian. I’m in a relationship with a woman. Is that gonna be a problem?’ And he said, ‘No. Are you gonna sign or what?’”

While it was a positive experience of allyship in that moment, not long after signing on, Alcock, as one of their sponsored athletes, had to participate in an event organized by the company.

“I had to sit beside Bishop Frederick Henry. It was a golf tournament, and they put me in the same golf cart with him. For 18 holes, I had to sit beside him! And I was like, ‘how did they not know that?’ That’s not okay.”

{For context, Bishop Henry had a long and public history of opposing 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, including same-sex marriage in the early 2000s and, more recently, gay-straight alliances in schools and, more generally, the provincial NDP’s gender and sexual diversity inclusion guidelines implemented when they were in power.}

Alcock qualified for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Based on her performances in the years leading to those Games, including a silver medal at the 2004 World Championships, Alcock was considered a medal favourite but, in her own words, the Olympics didn’t go nearly as well as she hoped. She finished 10^th. The disappointment of the finish wasn’t the only thing Alcock was dealing with; the following scenario reflects the still-pervasive heteronormativity in high-performance sport:

“One story I tell quite often is about what happened at the finish line in Torino [2006 Olympic Winter Games]. When I finished the race, I didn’t perform the way I had expected of myself. My wife was at the finish line, and I remember at that moment thinking, ‘So do I kiss her? Do I hug her? Do I… The camera’s on. I can feel it. I can feel it.’ It was burning into me. ‘What do I do?’ And I’m dealing with being really upset with how I did at this event. But I don’t wanna show shame. Like, I’m proud of who I am, and of this marriage, you know? And, so, the fact that I was thinking about that at the Olympic finish line was ridiculous. And I honestly don’t know what I did. I couldn’t tell you now how that went. It’s a total blur.”

Alcock would continue to compete in skeleton for two more years, ultimately retiring in 2008 to pursue a chiropractic degree in California. She once again resides in Calgary with her wife, Heather. Reflecting on her incredible athletic career, Alcock had this to say:

I’m most proud of how I was able to continue competing and to be who I was. It was quite a journey to get there.

Dr. Lindsay Alcock. Olympian. World Champion. Trailblazer. Calgarian.

{WB}

[1] This statement reflects what I’ve been able to uncover in my research to date, based on media stories and personal communications. I’m happy to be corrected if others know differently!

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged bisexual, Bishop Henry, Calgary, Calgary Olympics, gay, lesbian, Lindsay Alcock, Olympic Winter Games, queer, Skeleton, transgender, William Bridel

Welcome William!

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

Thrilled to be a part of the Calgary Gay History Project, Dr. William Bridel brings a sociological lens to queer history, with a particular interest in sport, physical activity, and health. William completed his PhD at Queen’s University in 2011, accepted a postdoctoral research position at the University of Alberta from 2011-2012, and then moved to Ohio to teach at a liberal arts college named Miami University of Ohio. He moved to our city in the summer of 2014 to begin work at the University of Calgary. He is currently the Senior Associate Dean, Academic Programs, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology.

*William Bridel. Photo credit: @rising_solstice_photography*

Having been involved in sport and physical activity most of his life and experiencing both the benefits of and barriers to participation, William and his research team have, over the years, explored 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion in various sports historically and in contemporary times. Of particular interest to us is his ongoing research project on the role of sport in Calgary’s queer history.

In October 2025, we posted some of his writing on Calgary’s queer hockey history. To coincide with the 2026 Olympic Winter Games (OWG), which run from Friday, February 6 to February 22, William will be sharing a series of posts featuring queer Calgarians who have competed in past Olympic Winter Games—as well as one that will focus on the 1988 OWG, held here in Calgary.

{WB}

Alberta Book Banning in 1997

Posted on January 15, 2026 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

{Readers of the Calgary Gay History Project know we are dismayed by the Alberta Government’s banning of four graphic novels last Autumn, labelling them pornographic—which, if you read them, is easily contested. The ban is really about anti-gay and anti-trans sentiment, driven in part by the Alberta non-profit Parents for Choice in Education. Recently, our colleague William Bridel sent us an article from the Dec. 3, 1997 edition of Perceptions, a Saskatoon-based queer publication published by activist Gens Hellquist from 1983-2013. We are reprinting the article in its entirety, as the synchronicity is uncanny. -Kevin}

One of the four graphic novels banned in schools by the Alberta Government in Sept 2025—not pornographic, but gay.

Banning Books from Perceptions, December 3, 1997:

(Calgary) Once again an incident has occurred in Alberta that has many people wondering whether the province is becoming more redneck and falling further behind other parts of the country in providing protection against discrimination for minorities. The province has been taken to the Supreme Court over its refusal to provide protection from discrimination for lesbians and gay men, they have refused to allow lesbians and gays to be foster parents, and some MLAs called for the return of a grant which was to be used to document the history of the gay and lesbian community in Alberta.

Now the Calgary Public School Board has banned two books from its shelves after some parents complained about their “promotion of homosexuality.” Dr. Donna Michaels, the school board’s chief superintendent, admitted pulling the books off the shelves after meeting with a group called Parents’ Rights in Education (PRE). The group has been sounding an alarm about the school system allowing the “gay agenda’’ into the schools.

“In my professional judgment, I determined that the language was highly inappropriate,” Michaels said. However, she would not state publicly, or tell the school board, which books had been removed after pressure from PRE. She said the two offending books must first go before a committee set up to hear public complaints about books in the· school system, adding that the process could take a month. She said the language she objected to was pornographic and did not involve gay or lesbian themes.

Tom Crites, a spokesperson for PRE, claimed one of the banned books was the anthology Not the Only One: Lesbian and Gay Fiction for Teens edited by Tony Grima. He could not name the other book his group deemed offensive. He said he too found the swear words offensive but admitted that the real problem is that the book is about homosexuality. “It is really pro-gay,” he said. He was also concerned that many of the stories were about people’s personal coming out story, which his group finds offensive.

Crites indicated his group’s agenda of removing all reference to homosexuality from the school system is far from over. He said PRE is attempting to identify the school board employee who ordered the two offending books. “We do have our suspicions,” he said. “We’re still doing some checking around.” He also indicated that his group has identified 30 to 40 other books that address gay and lesbian issues.

Spokespeople from the gay and lesbian community said this latest move is part of an explosion in anti-gay attitudes in Alberta and a clear sign that Alberta is one of the least tolerant places in Canada. “When you sit around and chat in the community, people feel we’re behind the rest of the country,” said Roy Heale, publisher of the gay newspaper Outlooks. “As long as we continue doing this, we’re perpetuating our reputation of being redneck.”

Gail Allen, a spokesperson for PFLAG, said she could not agree with banning books from school libraries that deal with homosexuality. “I don’t think they should be pulling books from the shelves,” she said, adding that her son, who is gay, would have had a happier adolescence if he had access to books that explain the realities of being gay.

School board members also expressed concern about the removal of the books and the process that was used. “We feel that this is an important issue,” said trustee Jennifer Pollock. “It needs to be addressed.”