Sports
Moving through Maryland
Feast benefit raises $425k for meals to HIV-positive residents
Cyclists in last weekend’s Ride for the Feast event. (Photo by Kevin Majoros)
Last weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the Moveable Feast fundraiser Ride for the Feast. The event is a two-day, 140-mile bike ride throughout the state of Maryland beginning in Ocean City and ending in Baltimore City.
Moveable Feast is a non-profit organization that provides free nutritious meals to people living with HIV/AIDS or breast cancer. Its staff and volunteers deliver meals to clients and their families in Baltimore City, the five counties surrounding the city and all the counties on the Eastern Shore.
Similar to Food and Friends in D.C., the organization is also the beneficiary of the funds raised by Dining Out for Life events in the Baltimore area.
In recent years, Moveable Feast has expanded its services to better assist clients as well as to face new challenges in the community.
On top of providing meals and nutritional counseling, it offers a transportation service for clients to attend medical appointments. Because of the amount of clients that are housed in shelters, its staff and volunteers also began supplying hot meals, seven days a week to local shelters.
In addition to the provisions that come from their kitchen, Moveable Feast offers a 12-week culinary training program that teaches former clients and other individuals the skills they need to work in the food industry.
In 2011, Moveable Feast delivered 534,527 meals to 924 clients, as well as 204,596 meals to drop-in centers of affiliated organizations, feeding an additional 1,035 people.
For its transportation program, staff and volunteers drove in excess of 30,000 miles over the course of last year, transporting clients and the homeless to their appointments. The culinary program boasted an 84 percent graduation record and 21 of the 27 students procured jobs by graduation.
The Ride for the Feast itself has become the organization’s largest fundraising program. This year, with close to 200 riders participating, more than $425,000 was raised with 100 percent of the proceeds going directly to client services.
During the two months leading up to the ride, team members’ host outdoor training rides several times per week. As the ride gets closer, the multiple location training rides become longer and almost daily. In D.C., team members were utilizing Rock Creek Park, the Mount Vernon Trail and the Capital Crescent Trail.
The first day of the ride is a 105-mile trek from Ocean City to Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Md., where the riders are housed in the gym or shuttled to nearby hotels.
The second day of the ride is a less daunting 40-mile ride ending in much fanfare through the streets of downtown Baltimore.
One of the founders of Ride for the Feast is D.C. resident David Andrews who has participated in all 10 rides. The idea came to Andrews after he participated in the D.C. AIDSRide in the 1990s.
“Participating in the event is a great reason to train and raise money for a worthy cause,” says Andrews, who actually ran five miles the day after the two-day ride.
There are also feel-good stories that emerge each year. According to Andrews, one rider told a stranger about the event and was handed a check for $11,000.
Several years ago another rider, Misty Letts was hit by a car while cycling to work. She used the ride as one of her inspirations to get back on the bike. This year marks her third time participating in the event and she is once again cycling to work.
“Adding a team aspect several years ago has brought a new dimension to the event,” Andrews says. “Along with the individuals, teams can come together and train, ride and do their fundraising as a unit.”
It’s never too soon to start thinking about next year’s ride. More information on the event is at mfeast.org.
Sports
New IOC policy bans trans women from Olympics
New regulation to be in effect at 2028 summer games in Los Angeles
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday announced it will not allow transgender women from competing in female events at the Olympics.
“For all disciplines on the Sports Program of an IOC event, including individual and team sports, eligibility for any Female Category is limited to biological females,” reads the new policy.
The policy states “eligibility for the Female Category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY Gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY Gene.”
“On the basis of the scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the SRY (sex-determining Region Y) Gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced or will experience male sex development,” it reads. “Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY Gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods. Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the Female Category.”
The policy states the test “will be a once-in-a-lifetime test” unless “there is reason to believe a negative reading is in error.”
The new regulation will be in place for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I understand that this a very sensitive topic,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry on Thursday in a video. “As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition.”
“The policy that we have announced is based on science and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart. The scientific evidence is very clear: male chromosomes give performance advances in sport that rely on strength, power, or endurance,” she added. “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
(Video courtesy of the IOC)
Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, in 2021 became the first trans woman to compete at the Olympics.
Imane Khelif, an Algerian boxer, won a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Khelif later sued JK Rowling and Elon Musk for cyberstalking after they questioned her gender identity.
Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, this year became the first openly trans athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics when he participated in Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.
President Donald Trump in February 2025 issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last July banned trans women from competing in female sporting events. Republican lawmakers have demanded the IOC ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.
“I’m grateful the Olympics finally embraced the common sense policy that women’s sports are for women, not for men,” said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on X.
An IOC spokesperson on Thursday referred the Washington Blade to the press release that announced the new policy.
More than a dozen LGBTQ athletes won medals at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that ended on Sunday.
Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, and Alex Carpenter are LGBTQ members of the U.S. women’s hockey team that won a gold medal after they defeated Canada in overtime. Knight the day before the Feb. 19 match proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
French ice dancer Guillaume Cizeron, who is gay, and his partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry won gold. American alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who is bisexual, won gold in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, was part of the American figure skating team that won gold in the team event.
Swiss freestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud, who is in a relationship with Vali Höll, an Austrian mountain biker, won gold in women’s freeski slopestyle.
Bruce Mouat, who is the captain of the British curling team that won a silver medal, is gay. Six members of the Canadian women’s hockey team — Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose, Emerance Maschmeyer, Brianne Jenner, Laura Stacey, and Marie-Philip Poulin — that won silver are LGBTQ.
Swedish freestyle skier Sandra Naeslund, who is a lesbian, won a bronze medal in ski cross.
Belgian speed skater Tineke den Dulk, who is bisexual, was part of her country’s mixed 2000-meter relay that won bronze. Canadian ice dancer Paul Poirier, who is gay, and his partner, Piper Gilles, won bronze.
Laura Zimmermann, who is queer, is a member of the Swiss women’s hockey team that won bronze when they defeated Sweden.
Outsports.com notes all of the LGBTQ Olympians who competed at the games and who medaled.
Sports
US wins Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey
Team captain Hilary Knight proposed to girlfriend on Wednesday
The U.S. women’s hockey team on Thursday won a gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime. The game took place a day after Team USA captain Hilary Knight proposed to her girlfriend, Brittany Bowe, an Olympic speed skater.
Cayla Barnes and Alex Carpenter — Knight’s teammates — are also LGBTQ. They are among the more than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes who are competing in the games.
The Olympics will end on Sunday.
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