When the Gay Games made it to Europe for the first time, no one knew what to expect.

When Robert LeBeau was awarded the gold medal, he passed it on to New York's Gary Bertonis, who had beaten him head on.

Not the spectators at the University of Amsterdam, not the competitors on the mats, not the representatives from the Netherlands Wrestling Federation.

Confusion about rules, scoring and pairing, coupled with an impromptu decision to shorten the day and cancel matches just to get out earlier, caused angst among the wrestlers.

The wrestlers responded with their usual aplomb.

At the end of the day, the frustration of the wrestlers boiled over into symbolic gestures of defiance. The emotional high point of the tournament was a direct result of this defiance. In the awarding of the gold and silver medals in the men's open 76 kilograms, the gold was incorrectly awarded to Robert Lebeau of San Francisco and the silver to Gary Bertonis of New York City. However, Bertonis had decisively beaten Robert in a head-to-head match up, and it was the cancellation of subsequent matches for Gary that caused the points inequity. After the medals had been awarded on the platforms, Lebeau and Bertonis climbed down from the platform, switched medals, and re-mounted the platforms much to the chagrin of the officials. The applause of the wrestlers was thunderous. In three other similar cases, medal awards had to be adjusted in order to defuse the "sit in" defiance of wrestlers in front of the officials table.

The emergence of Amsterdam's Tigertje Wrestlers as a powerhouse was another positive for the event. Tigertje's post tournament party featured consolation matches and a surprise visit from one of the Netherlands Wrestling Federation officials, who came to offer his belated congratulations and appreciation. He admitted he was impressed, and that the NWF had not given Gay Games Wrestling the credit it deserved. He then proceeded to wrestle Greco with some of the wrestlers.

There were many German, French, and English wrestlers in the stands who had not registered to wrestle for whatever reason. Many were unaware of the event, many underestimated their abilities, and many did not believe that the event would be legitimate. That would change. Some 30 wrestlers met informally with WWB delegates to remedy the problems and plan the Sydney 2002 event.