Sports
Night of Champions returns
Team D.C. unveils this year’s scholarship recipients
Team D.C. Scholarship recipients, from left, Lily Chong, Kyra McClary, Sam Song, Fayra Bonilla and Lisa Chen (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The Team D.C. College Scholarship program has begun to feel the effects of the changes in sports culture as they relate to LGBT athletes.
As the younger generation is aging into their high school years, the fear of competing as an openly gay athlete is beginning to subside. There are certainly still challenges, but in their eighth year of awarding scholarships to openly gay local student-athletes, Team D.C. granted a record nine awards this year.
Scholarship chair Bud Rorison also points to the groundwork laid over the years by the scholarship committee for the increase in this year’s recipients.
“People finally know about the scholarship and are finding it on websites and in scholarship searches,” Rorison says. “We have had great pipeline high schools over the years such as Montgomery Blair and Wilson, but this year we had a nice presence from the Virginia high schools.”
He is quick to point out that one of the reasons Team D.C. gave out so many awards this year is because the nine recipients all had strong reasons to warrant the scholarship.
“It was tough this time as all the kids were amazing,” Rorison says. “They touched on all the relevant factors such as grades, sports, financial needs and compelling backgrounds.”
In another first for the scholarship program, Team D.C. arranged a picnic at Meridian Hill Park where all the recipients met for the first time.
“It was definitely a bonding experience for them,” Rorison says. “We fully expect them to become the role models for the next wave of kids.”
John Ramsey was born in Missouri and grew up in Silver Spring, Md. During his first two years at Montgomery Blair High School, he played basketball and baseball, but chose to concentrate on baseball for his final two years where he played first base.
He came out to his teammates in the fall of his junior year. He would go on to be named captain of the baseball team in his senior year.
“It was much more enjoyable and comfortable for me after I came out. I felt freed,” Ramsey says. “When it came to talk of girls and me giving false output, the two years before it were awkward.”
Ramsay just wrapped up fall ball at Oberlin College where he finds himself at the bottom of the pile looking to build his way up to being a starter for the baseball team. Their season will begin again in the spring.
“My freshman year is going to be a developmental year,” Ramsay says. “I am going to focus on academics first and the baseball stuff will be secondary. I will still be the best I can be athletically.”
Lisa Chen began her sports career at West Springfield High School in cross country and basketball. She grew up in Bowie, Md., and moved with her family to Springfield, Va., before high school.
She was out to her teammates but struggled with the process at home.
“It was kind of a don’t ask, don’t tell situation and it almost felt like the wrong time for me to be out,” Chen says. “I wasn’t ready for the conversations with my mother.”
Finding support for gay athletes from Team D.C. was “just awesome,” Chen says.
Chen has a signature look of wearing bowties and she has taken that look with her to the University of Virginia. Now in her first semester, she has already joined the fencing club and says that her independence is going to be important during her college years.
“UVA is known for being preppy and I am going to embrace that with all my bowties. I am not going to worry about getting my hair cut too short or hiding my bowties,” Chen says. “I am here to learn and I am looking forward to it.”
The scholarship winners will be honored along with members of the LGBT sports community at Team D.C.’s A Night of Champions at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Saturday, Nov. 7.
John Ramsey (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Team DC Scholarship recipients:
Kyra McClary
Graduated from: T.C. Williams High School
Attending: Smith College
Sport: rowing
Lisa Chen
Graduated from: West Springfield High School
Attending: University of Virginia
Sports: cross country, basketball
Gabe Perkins
Graduated from: West Potomac High School
Attending: Virginia Commonwealth University
Sport: swimming
Lily Chong
Graduated from: Mt. Vernon High School
Attending: George Mason University
Sport: dance
John Ramsey
Graduated from: Montgomery Blair High School
Attending: Oberlin College
Sport: baseball
Fayra Bonilla-Rubi
Graduated from: Lee High School
Attending: Potomac State College of West Virginia University
Sports: JV soccer, rec soccer, marching band
Sam Song
Graduated from: Poolsville High School in 2013
Attending: St. Lawrence University
Sport: swimming
Jemmesha Parker
Graduated from: Luke Moore Alternative High School
Attending: University of District of Columbia
Sport: cheerleading
Nora O’Leary
Graduated from: Washington-Lee High School
Attending: Loyola University (New Orleans)
Sports: JV soccer, golf, varsity soccer manager, gymnastics team manager
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are expected to compete in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics that open on Friday.
Outsports.com notes eight Americans — including speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy and figure skater Amber Glenn — are among the 44 openly LGBTQ athletes who will compete in the games. The LGBTQ sports website also reports Ellis Lundholm, a mogul skier from Sweden, is the first openly transgender athlete to compete in any Winter Olympics.
“I’ve always been physically capable. That was never a question,” Glenn told Outsports.com. “It was always a mental and competence problem. It was internal battles for so long: when to lean into my strengths and when to work on my weaknesses, when to finally let myself portray the way I am off the ice on the ice. That really started when I came out publicly.”
McDermott-Mostowy is among the six athletes who have benefitted from the Out Athlete Fund, a group that has paid for their Olympics-related training and travel. The other beneficiaries are freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, speed skater Brittany Bowe, snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick, alpine skier Breezy Johnson, and Paralympic Nordic skier Jake Adicoff.
Out Athlete Fund and Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood on Friday will host a free watch party for the opening ceremony.
“When athletes feel seen and accepted, they’re free to focus on their performance, not on hiding who they are,” Haley Caruso, vice president of the Out Athlete Fund’s board of directors, told the Los Angeles Blade.
Four Italian LGBTQ advocacy groups — Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano — have organized the games’ Pride House that will be located at the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan.
Pride House on its website notes it will “host a diverse calendar of events and activities curated by associations, activists, and cultural organizations that share the values of Pride” during the games. These include an opening ceremony party at which Checcoro, Milan’s first LGBTQ chorus, will perform.
ILGA World, which is partnering with Pride House, is the co-sponsor of a Feb. 21 event that will focus on LGBTQ-inclusion in sports. Valentina Petrillo, a trans Paralympian, is among those will participate in a discussion that Simone Alliva, a journalist who writes for the Italian newspaper Domani, will moderate.
“The event explores inclusivity in sport — including amateur levels — with a focus on transgender people, highlighting the role of civil society, lived experiences, and the voices of athletes,” says Milano Pride on its website.
The games will take place against the backdrop of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s decision to ban trans women from competing in women’s sporting events.
President Donald Trump last February issued an executive order that bans trans women and girls from female sports teams in the U.S. A group of Republican lawmakers in response to the directive demanded the International Olympics Committee ban trans athletes from women’s athletic competitions.
The IOC in 2021 adopted its “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” that includes the following provisions:
• 3.1 Eligibility criteria should be established and implemented fairly and in a manner that does not systematically exclude athletes from competition based upon their gender identity, physical appearance and/or sex variations.
• 3.2 Provided they meet eligibility criteria that are consistent with principle 4 (“Fairness”, athletes should be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity.
• 3.3 Criteria to determine disproportionate competitive advantage may, at times, require testing of an athlete’s performance and physical capacity. However, no athlete should be subject to targeted testing because of, or aimed at determining, their sex, gender identity and/or sex variations.
The 2034 Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City. The 2028 Summer Olympics will occur in Los Angeles.
Sports
‘Heated Rivalry’ stars to participate in Olympic torch relay
Games to take place next month in Italy
“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie will participate in the Olympic torch relay ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics that will take place next month in Italy.
HBO Max, which distributes “Heated Rivalry” in the U.S., made the announcement on Thursday in a press release.
The games will take place in Milan and Cortina from Feb. 6-22. The HBO Max announcement did not specifically say when Williams and Storrie will participate in the torch relay.
The Washington Capitals will host Pride Night on Saturday, Jan. 17, when they host the Florida Panthers at Capital One Arena. A special ticket offer featuring a Pride-themed Capitals rainbow jersey is available at washcaps.com.
Fans are invited to a pre-game Block Party at District E beginning at 5 p.m. The event will feature a performance by the band NovaKane. Specialty happy hour food and beverages will be available, as well as giveaways. There will also be a presence by several local LGBTQ+ community organizations.
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