Member Spotlight – Bryan Frank

If you were an animal what would you be? So if I was an animal, I think I would be in Gryffindor. I think that’s where the Sorting Hat would put me. That seems like the cool place to be. They have a really cool crest and good color coordination and a famous sword. Wait…. That’s a house. Not an animal! Oops! So… if I was an animal, I think it would have to be the tiger. They seem kind of ferocious, but really they are a big cat that purrs when you scratch behind their ears. While I’m technically skinny and bony, I like to think that I’m soft and cuddly, so that holds with the tiger mentality too. While navy blue is my favorite color, I also have to give props to tigers for brazenly owning the bright orange in the jungle. Like all other animals go all camouflage and try to blend in, but the tiger is like “F’ that! I’m rocking this orange and you will see me coming!” I’m kind of loud and annoying like that. And you can’t go wrong with a bouncing Tigger. I mean: really. You can’t.

What does your life outside of sport life look like? There is life outside of sport? Seriously? There is?! Why didn’t anybody tell me this!? I’ve been doing it all wrong! But when I am not training or racing, I work in the field of biological research. I mess around with a lot of nasty agents that are on the bioterror/biodefense list studying them and crossing my fingers that I don’t somehow end up creating the next superbug that wipes out the entire planet. Kind of like the famous of last words of the physicist at CERN who said “Oops” before creating a giant black hole in the center of our planet, I hope not to use more colorful language before I’m gobble up by a symbiote that I created in the lab that then goes on to take over the world. But hey, if I’m lucky, the symbiote will just turn me into Venom!

Have you ever faced any obstacles in your life/career/fitness journey and what did you do to get over them So I once walked into a bar, and said “Ouch” and then I limbo-ed under it. Actually I would probably have fallen on my ass doing that, I’m horrible at limbo. I do go mountain biking every now and then and I’m so bad at it that I stop and get off my bike for any obstacles that are bigger than like a twig. But seriously, as I head off to France on Friday to compete in the Gay Games X (Paris) and defend my title as the world’s fastest gay triathlete (I won the Gay Games IX (Cleveland) triathlon in 2014; I also am not the fastest anymore since there is a professional triathlete who is now out and is WAY faster than I am), I think the obstacle that I have faced is the stigma/stereotyping/questions regarding homosexuality. This is not really the place for psychotherapy and I’m sure that I could use a lot of it, but there is a lot that I could say about being gay and overcoming the hurdles in my family, in the workplace, in society that go along with that. There are hurdles that I face within even in the gay community because I don’t fit the typical narrative. But again, this is not the place for that deep of a discussion. We all face challenges. We all face obstacles. I have always been one to do my own thing, forge my own path, and puzzle out a way to prevail over any hurdle in front of me and move beyond it. There are no right or wrong ways to overcome barriers, there is just the idea that there is something in front of you and it must be conquered. I’m sure Freud or Jung would read into that, but my advice to anyone is to set yourself a goal, set yourself small tasks to get there, allow yourself to adapt as you go along, and always take a step forward toward the end point and you will eventually overcome any obstacles and reach your goals. And on that note, I’ll just end it with this, as a really smart fish once said: Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming swimming swimming!

Social Media Platforms: I have Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bryan.c.frank.5 and then I’m the idiot who maintains and posts on the Elite Team’s Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/dctriclubelite/). So don’t blame all my other teammates for the stupid things and really bad photography that is posted there. That is all my fault. I apologize to them and the club profusely for that. So please follow me AND the team on Instagram! We are also on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/dctriclubelite) so please like us there too!