Sports
Rookies & Vets: Capital Splats
Racquetball league offers flexible matches, advanced training
Kevin Morris, left, and Mark Storey, rookies and vets respectively with the Capital Splats Racquetball Association. (Morris photo by Kevin Majoros; Storey photo by Art Thomas)
The Capital Splats Racquetball Association was launched in 2010 and now offers three seasons of league play that run four months long. It has close to 60 players who are split among five divisions and have experienced a lot of crossover from other LGBT sports including a big influx of softball players.
This week in the long-running Blade series on the rookies and veterans, who make up the LGBT-inclusive sports teams in D.C., we take a look at two gay players from the Capital Splats.
Kevin Morris has moved up two divisions since he started playing with the Capital Splats in 2014. He is one of the softball players who has joined the league and has been playing with the Chesapeake and Potomac Softball League since 2005 along with stints playing with Stonewall Dodgeball and the Capital Area Rainbowlers Association.
“I played racquetball recreationally in college and always saw the Splats at Capital Pride,” Morris says. “I put my name on their sign-up sheet several times and finally joined after I heard a friend talking about them.”
Morris grew up in Springfield, Va., where his sports focus was on baseball and tennis. While he was earning his degree at Longwood University, he played racquetball and flag football. After teaching for 12 years, he switched to administration and is now working as an assistant principal.
Even though he gets exercise from participating in multiple sports, Morris finds he gets something extra from playing racquetball.
“Racquetball is an amazing cardio workout and it makes me feel healthy,” Morris says. “It is much more enjoyable than spending time on an elliptical.”
Another plus for Morris is that the Splats league doesn’t run on a set schedule. The players reach out to each other to schedule their matches which are all contested at the Washington D.C. Jewish Community Center. Along with league play, the players are offered coaching from veteran players and are able to have matches outside of the league with players who have higher skill sets.
“I like playing people who are better than me as long as it is competitive,” Morris says. “This sport is like chess at 100 miles per hour and you have to stay ahead of your opponent’s thought process. If the other guy is sweating and out of breath, then I know I am doing my job.”
Mark Storey is a former commissioner with the Capital Tennis Association and when he co-founded the Capital Splats in 2010, it was in a vein similar to the tennis template.
“I was playing in a racquetball league in Virginia, but there was nothing being offered in D.C. for the LGBT community,” Storey says. “We were able to work out a special deal with the JCC to get the league started.”
Storey is from Des Moines, Iowa and competed in football, basketball and track & field on his high school team. Sports were put on the back burner, except for recreational racquetball, while he earned his degrees at Georgetown University in Russian area studies. He’s employed as a consultant with an international development firm.
The next season for the Splats begins on Oct. 1 and to make the transition easier for new athletes, the veteran players meet with the rookie players for an orientation clinic.
“I think it is an easy sport to pick up,” Storey says. “We offer a variety of things outside of league play such as doubles, cut-throat and in-house tournaments. It gives the players a chance to experience all aspects of the sport and to meet the other players.”
As for Storey, he continues to enjoy the sport for many reasons including as a path to recovery from an injury.
“I broke my leg a few years ago and racquetball is a very efficient way to get an all-body workout,” he says. “Plus, I have a competitive streak and this sport helps to feed that need.”
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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