Sports
Rookies & Vets: D.C. Furies
The local women’s rugby league welcomes all
Leni Dworkis, left, and Amanda Bauer, members of the D.C. Furies. (Photo by Kevin Majoros)
The Blade’s ongoing series on the rookies and veterans that make up the local sports teams takes a look this week at two LGBT players on the Washington Women’s Rugby Football Club, better known as the D.C. Furies.
The Furies are one of the longest running women’s rugby clubs in the nation and compete in the Women’s Premiere League along with fielding a team in Division II of the Capital Geographic Rugby Union.
Spring and fall league play consists of 15s (i.e. 15 players) matches locally and throughout the United States along with 7s (i.e. seven players) tournaments during the summer months. A number of the Furies players are currently members of the 15s and 7s Women’s National Team selection pools.
The team also hosted its 36th annual Ruggerfest tournament in April which drew 34 teams.
Amanda Bauer moved to D.C. on June 1 and was at her first practice with the Furies within the first week of her residence here. She has already played at two tournaments with the B team in Richmond, Va., and Cape Fear, N.C.
While rookies don’t usually integrate so quickly into the Furies, Bauer had been playing club rugby right up until she moved to D.C. Growing up in Apple Valley, Minn., Bauer played ice hockey through middle school and competed in tennis and track and field in high school. It was during her years at St Olaf College that she picked up running and played club rugby.
“It was difficult at the first practice with the Furies because everyone was already friends,” Bauer says. “That quickly faded away though as everyone really puts out an effort to get know you. I think that works both ways when a rookie joins a team.”
Since Bauer started toward the beginning of the summer season, she was able to benefit from drills sessions with the veterans before segueing into scrimmages between the two Furies teams.
“I have been doing a lot of listening and watching during the practices,” Bauer says. “The on-field verbal signals are different from my last team and easier to interpret here. There is strong team chemistry amongst the players on this team.”
Bauer’s job as an economic research assistant is a junior position which means she will be in D.C. for at least two years. She is hoping to work her way to the Furies A team in that time.
“I love going to practice and being dedicated to work as hard as I can,” Bauer says. “It’s nice that both teams practice together; there is no discrimination between the two.”
Leni Dworkis grew up in Harrington Park, N.J. competing in gymnastics and was a member of the cheerleading squad in high school. After she started at George Washington University, she switched over to competitive ballroom dancing until one of her roommates started pestering her to give rugby a try.
“I was struggling to find my place personally,” Dworkis says, “and once I saw all the aggression and team camaraderie in rugby, I was sold.”
Dworkis, who works as a research analyst at the Vera Institute of Justice, stayed on at G.W. for graduate school and played a fifth year with its club rugby team. After her eligibility ended, she joined the Furies in 2013.
She says she had a hard time fitting in at first because of her shyness. Now a veteran player on the Furies A team in the wing position, Dworkis plays all three seasons and serves as the recruitment chair.
To help with the integration of rookies, the Furies hold skills clinics, have one-on-one practices and have the veterans focus on in-practice interaction. Socially, there are house parties, rookie nights, dancing and team-building events.
“We go out every Thursday in the summers and I love how open everyone is with each other,” Dworkis says. “It makes me proud to see the team bonding and the friendships blossoming.”
Because of what the players consider a stereotype of women rugby players being lesbians, the Furies don’t market themselves as an LGBT league.
“We want to avoid that stigma and be more approachable to straight players,” Dworkis says. “This sport is mutual grounds and we create a safe space for everyone.”
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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