Graduates of Baltimore-area Catholic schools are at the top of their games when it comes to grabbing national attention in the professional ranks and on the pre-Olympic stage this summer.

John Calipari, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, was the keynote speaker at the Baltimore Catholic League Hall of Fame ceremony at Turf Valley Resort. The BCL honored 10 of its standouts at the ceremony and banquet.

– In the run-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, opening on July 26, the “Holy Games” project, launched for the occasion by the French bishops and the Archdioceses of Paris, is gaining momentum with a growing number of events on the theme of “sport and faith.”

Dylan Beard says his Olympic dreams “start with God and stay with God.” Those Olympic dreams, which started in the Archdiocese of Baltimore at Archbishop Spalding High School, are just a couple races away from fruition.

The archbishop of Madrid received unusual guests June 2 as Europe’s best soccer team, Real Madrid, came to the Spanish capital’s St. Mary the Royal of the Almudena Cathedral to offer its championship trophy to Mary.

Several Catholic professional women, as well as an order of women religious, have challenged a controversial graduation speech by NFL player Harrison Butker, during which the Kansas City Chiefs placekicker and devout Catholic opined on (among other topics) the role of women in society, and the church’s teaching on natural family planning.

Adding another distinguished medal to her already sizable collection, Katie Ledecky — the most decorated woman in swimming history — was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 3 in a White House ceremony.

Dozens of student athletes from area Catholic and independent elementary and middle schools participated in the 31st Youth Bowl May 4 at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore.

Benedictine College welcomed 19 young men and women into the Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, 17 of whom were student athletes.

Jockey Keith Asmussen calls on his Catholic faith daily as he competes in the high-stakes world of horse racing, and the sport’s stage gets no bigger than the one he will be on May 4, when he rides in his first Kentucky Derby.