Transgender participation in women’s sports has been well underway. A recent high-profile case was swimmer Lia Thomas becoming the first transgender winner at the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Women’s Division I Swimming Championships. Thomas finished first in March’s 500-yard women’s freestyle.
Riley Gaines Barker, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied for fifth place in competition against Thomas at the NCAA Championships in March, was told that her trophy would be in the mail. She said she understood that only one person would get the trophy at the event, as ties at swimming events were scarce. However, she said that when she asked why, she was told that Thomas needed to have the trophy for pictures.
“That’s when I realized that women are being put on the back burner here,” Barker told The Epoch Times. “Not only are we being forced to compete against men, but men are being protected over women at an all-female competition. That’s when I knew I had to speak up about it.”
Representatives for the NCAA didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment.
Barker got married a few weeks ago and has postponed her plan to go to dental school. At the same time, she is taking a gap year for the cause.
“It’s something that clearly a difference can be made, as FINA has shown,” she said, referring to the new International Swimming Federation (FINA) rule that took effect June 20, which curbs transgender athletes who began gender transitions after the age of 12 from competing at the elite level.
‘Slow Down’
Madisan DeBos, a cross country and track athlete at Southern Utah State University, recalled her experience in running a relay race in 2020 in which her team lost to a rival with a transgender athlete. After she finished her leg, the first leg of the relay, she screamed and cheered for her teammates. Then, she heard the transgender athlete’s coach telling him to “slow down.” The runner slowed down, and his team placed second.
“Yes, you heard that right. The biological male runner competing in the women’s section was told to ‘slow down’ at a conference championship,” DeBos told the rally participants.
An Ongoing Lawsuit
In April 2017, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference began to allow athletes to compete based on their gender identity. As a result, 19-year-old Chelsea Mitchell, a former high school track and field athlete and the plaintiff of a lawsuit against the Connecticut Association of Schools, had to compete with and lost to biological males throughout her high school years.She told The Epoch Times that her confidence gained through sports was destroyed because of competing with biological males and knowing the outcome before the races even began.
In 2019, Mitchell was the first female finisher at the Connecticut state championships in the 55-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter races. However, she didn’t get the medals and titles because she lost to a biological male, who didn’t rank in the top 100 when he had competed in men’s races in the state.
The lawsuit is currently with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Matthew Sharp, counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian legal advocacy group representing Mitchell in the case, said the proposed Title IX changes wouldn’t affect the lawsuit.
Christiana Kiefer, another ADF counsel who also represents Mitchell, said in an email that the proposed Title IX changes were “threatening the advancements women have long fought to achieve in education and athletics.”
