Sports
Rookies & Vets: Washington Prodigy
Local women’s football team enjoying winning season
Washington Prodigy players Aisha Sandidge, left, and Bukola Landis-Aina, on the field at the game against the Baltimore Nighthawks last weekend which they won 14-0 (Photo by Kevin Majoros)
The Washington Prodigy is a full-tackle, local women’s football team that’s a member of the Independent Women’s Football League. It was formed in 2012 and its 2-0 two games into its current season.
This week in the ongoing Blade series spotlighting rookies and veterans in local sports leagues, we shine a light on two LGBT players on the Prodigy team.
Aisha Sandidge grew up in Fort Washington and played soccer along with a year of track & field in high school. Her football career began while she was attending Drexel University where she took up intramural flag football.
After moving back to the D.C. area in 2010, she joined a co-ed flag football league and by the end of 2011 was playing in a women’s league. Sandidge had a few friends on the Prodigy who were encouraging her to join, but she wasn’t ready to commit.
“This year I wanted to try something different and do something new,” Sandidge says. “Once I met more of the players on the team, I knew it was the right choice.”
Sandidge went out for tryouts in November of 2015 and the subsequent player and coach camps. Her position is wide receiver and so far in the first two games of her rookie season, she has only played on special teams. She knows the time will come when she will get more game time.
“More than one-third of the players this year are rookies and when we started practicing, you couldn’t feel the difference between the rookies and veterans,” Sandidge says. “I’ve been on other teams where the rookies get pushed aside. I don’t feel that with the Prodigy.”
Sandidge, who works in the construction industry as a project engineer, says she is “itching to get in there” and for now she is enjoying the give and take between the players.
“Playing football is a great stress reliever for me,” Sandidge says. “I want to challenge myself to be a better athlete and a better person.”
Veteran player Bukola Landis-Aina is one of the original players on the team and isn’t looking to retire anytime soon. There are too many things about the game that are still keeping her engaged.
“When I am playing, I feel like there is nothing else going on in the world,” Landis-Aina says. “If I got stagnant, I would be less interested but I am still getting better.”
Born in Philadelphia, Landis-Aina grew up playing basketball, volleyball and softball. Her parents ended her sports participation in high school in hopes that she would make it to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She more than made it. Landis-Aina completed her degree in chemical engineering at MIT while being a member of the varsity track & field team specializing in shot put and the hammer throw. She followed that up with a law degree from New York University.
After moving to D.C. in 2006 to work in patent litigation, Landis-Aina joined a co-ed flag football league, segued to a women’s league and then to full-contact football. She spent two-and-a-half years with the D.C. Divas and one year with the Baltimore Nighthawks until the Prodigy was formed in 2012. She is also still playing flag football.
“Playing for me is all about physically pushing myself as an athlete,” Landis-Aina says. “I also love the team camaraderie and the feeling of having my teammate’s backs.”
Landis-Aina, who plays center and multiple offensive line positions, was a captain last year and enjoys the responsibilities of being one of the veteran players.
“I feel that need to step up, be on time, be a leader in drills, you know, the front of the line,” Landis-Aina says. “I want to be there to uplift my teammates.”
With their season getting off to such a great start, the players are aiming to keep their winning streak alive this weekend against the New York Sharks at Wilson High School. On May 14, Team D.C. will showcase the Washington Prodigy in its Night OUT series as they take on the Carolina Phoenix.
“This is a team with no negative energy,” Landis-Aina says. “We stand together and we will rise and fall together.”
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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