Sports
Sportin’ in D.C.
D.C. Aquatics Club has AIDS benefit race this weekend
District of Columbia Aquatics Club members at a recent charity swim. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Majoros)
Back in 1996, I was competing in triathlons in the Mid-Atlantic region and was cross training in multiple sports. A former swimming rival from Ohio, Paul Frentsos, told me about an LGBT swim team in D.C. called the District of Columbia Aquatics Club (DCAC). I ended up competing with them at the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatic (IGLA) Championships that year and have been a member ever since.
The team began in 1987 when a few of the members of the Washington Wetskins water polo team decided to compete in swimming as well as water polo at the IGLA Championships that year. DCAC is a member of both United States Masters Swimming (USMS), which boasts more than 42,000 master swimmers and IGLA. Over the years, DCAC has grown to become one of the largest masters swim teams in the Potomac Valley region with around 150 members. It consists of athletes who have never competed in a swim meet to world record holders.
Competitive swimmers compete in three different types of pools, short course yards (25 yards), short course meters (25 meters) and long course meters (50 meters). DCAC offers practices during the winter at the Takoma Aquatic Center, Marie Reed Recreation Center and Montgomery College. In the summer, it offers the opportunity for long course training at Haines Point.
To become a member of DCAC, you must first join U.S. Masters Swimming which is $37 per year. With that fee, you will receive Swimmer Magazine, the Swimmer’s Ear (a Potomac Valley publication), some minor accident insurance and the opportunity to compete in swim meets. The DCAC fees are $35 per year along with pool dues which are contingent on how often you train.
The group offers 90-minute practices six times per week. The practices, which are run by paid coaches, emphasize stroke technique, building strength, endurance and aerobic conditioning. The team itself is run entirely by swimmers who volunteer their time.
On Saturday, DCAC will host the 20th annual Maryland Swim for Life in Chestertown, MD. The event is sanctioned by United States Masters Swimming and will begin and end at Rolph’s Wharf on the Chester River. Athletes have the choice of competing in 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- or 5-mile open water races and must raise $100 to participate. Proceeds from the event benefit various small organizations that assist individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS in the D.C. metropolitan area, along with the Chester River Association.
According to Wonkee Moon, co-race director, DCAC plans to welcome about 150 competitors from across the Mid-Atlantic region in hopes of raising $20,000 for local charities.
DCAC has hosted the Swim for Life event for 10 years and has helped raise over $200,000 during that time.
After they wrap up their open water event this weekend, the swimmers will be turning their efforts to the pool as they head to Honolulu where they will compete in the IGLA World Championships from July 6-10. DCAC is sending 42 swimmers who range in age from 23 to 68 and will be competing for the large team trophy.
DCAC won the large team trophy for the first time at the 1995 IGLA Championships in Montreal. Its swimmers continued to win the trophy awarded to the team amassing the most points in eight of the next 10 IGLA Championships where they were eligible for prize. Good luck to the globetrotting swimmers as they try to grab the IGLA Championships for the ninth time. More information on the team can be found at www.swimdcac.org.
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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