OUR STORY

Team Auckland Masters Swimmers (TAMS) got its start thanks to fresh-faced Ron Judd 32 years ago when he decided to formalise a group of LGBTQIA+ rainbow swimmers who would want to compete at masters’ level (aged 25-105). TAMS started at Auckland’s Tepid Baths in September 1991 and was formalised in early 1992.

“I decided that we should formalise the group because I wanted some permanency with it,” says Ron. “I was into competing and at the time you had to belong to a New Zealand Masters’ Swimming club to compete. I was part of the Waterhole Masters’ Swimming club before that, but it was a group that was very family orientated; as a gay guy, it could be a little lonely.

“I was aware there were a lot of gay guys out there swimming, so I had the idea to get a group together. There weren’t many gay community groups around at that time – you could go to gay bars, but that was kind of it. We were part of that rise of the gay community group.”

Once the group had settled into a routine, swimmers worked towards travelling to New York for the Gay Games in 1994. There the team competed in events, as well as the Pink Flamingo, a Gay Games tradition that combines outrageous costumes, music, dance and synchronised swimming with humour and satire, to make for an exciting, fun and somewhat revealing evening.