Sports
Washington Blade All Stars: Potomac Curling Club
Second annual Glitter Bombspiel coming Oct. 5-7
Laura Yee (left) and Jimmy Fallon say curling uses muscles not used in other sports and requires great concentration. (Photos courtesy the players)
The second annual Glitter Bombspiel will take place on Oct. 5-7 at the National Capital Curling Center in Laurel, Md. The event is a three-day curling tournament that will feature 24 teams from the United States and Canada.
Last year’s event was the first bonspiel (curling tournament) in the United States for LGBT curlers and their allies. The field was expanded this year and still sold out in two days.
This week in the Washington Blade All Star series, we meet two local LGBT curlers with the Potomac Curling Club who are competing once again this year in the tournament.
Laura Yee grew up in Westfield, N.J. playing a mix of sports including high school basketball and tennis. After seeing curling in the 2002 Olympics as a high schooler, she joined a junior group at the Plainfield Curling Club in New Jersey.
“I like that you have to be strong and have good balance,” Yee says. “It’s also super fun and a great way to meet people. Everyone tends to stick around and socialize after the game so there is a built-in community.”
When she arrived in D.C. for her undergraduate work at George Washington University, she continued in the sport at the Potomac Curling Club at the National Capital Curling Center.
Yee left the area to pursue her Master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle. The Granite Curling Club became her new home for curling and her first pairing in Seattle opened her eyes to the longevity that many people in the sport enjoy.
“I was paired with a woman in her 80s and she was an example that people of all ages can play fairly well,” Yee says. “I can play this sport for the rest of my life.”
Yee graduated and returned to the D.C. area where she works as a statistician at the National Cancer Institute. She has competed in multiple tournaments around the country including two appearances at club nationals. She is excited for the second edition of Glitter Bonspiel which received a lot of positive feedback from last year.
“I think people believe that curling is easy, but a lot of muscles are used that you don’t usually use,” Yee says. “Tournaments are fun and intense because all your focus is on playing. It’s a great opportunity to get to know your team better.”
Growing up in Longmont, Colo., Jimmy Fallon enjoyed skiing, hiking, rock climbing and cycling. Competitively he was active in track and soccer. After graduating from the Colorado School of Mines, he came to D.C. to begin his Navy commission at the Washington Navy Yard.
After watching curling at the 2010 Olympics he signed up to play with the Potomac Curling Club. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had not been repealed yet, so he kept his sexual identity to himself. After the repeal, he had a new freedom to be himself and found the club to be a friendly, welcoming environment. He is currently playing in two leagues per season.
“Curling is fun, engaging and physical. I like the strategic aspects,” Fallon says. “There is a community at the club with a tradition of hanging out after each match in the warm room.”
Fallon discovered a thriving network of curling teams for the LGBT community in Canada. They were running a series of gay bonspiels.
“It’s crazy how many bonspiels are in Canada. The gay ones have double the teams,” Fallon says. “It’s great to see the overlap between the LGBT community and the curling community.”
Fallon traveled to tournaments in Ottawa and Toronto and realized it would be fun to start an LGBT bonspiel at the National Capital Curling Center in Laurel.
In addition to curling, Fallon spent two seasons with the D.C. Strokes Rowing Club. Now working as a physics instructor at the United States Naval Academy, he also volunteers with the academy’s sailing program.
“Going to bonspiels is great and the treks out of town really test your commitment to the sport,” Fallon says. “These used to be separate communities and now they are joined together.”
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.
Netflix’s ‘The Boyfriend’ is more than a dating show
Snow, ice, and politics: what is (and isn’t) happening
50 years later, it’s still worth a return trip to ‘Grey Gardens’
Marc Shaiman reflects on musical success stories
Human Rights Watch sharply criticizes US in annual report
Unconventional homes becoming more popular
Out dancer on Alvin Ailey’s stint at Warner Theatre
LGBTQ Minnesotans speak out amid ICE crackdowns
D.C. Council urged to improve ‘weakened’ PrEP insurance bill
