A coach and father’s perspective on protecting women’s sports

As a father and former sports coach, I feel compelled to speak out and advocate for women and women’s sports in light of the recent transgender athlete winning the NCAA national swimming competition.

I can’t help but notice the irony of the fact that this took place during Women’s History Month in March. The irony continues in ESPN’s plans to spotlight “The Stories of Title IX” in their Fifty/50 series coming this June to include transgender athletes. The equality that took women generations to gain took one year to destroy.

In the past, female college students had few options for participating in competitive athletics as school administrators and their budgets heavily favored male athletics programs. When Title IX passed in 1972, it established much-needed civil rights protections, in addition to creating more opportunities and funding for female-only athletic programs. These opportunities to learn valuable life lessons of teamwork, character, sacrifice, and discipline through sports — often producing success in life — were extended to women.

This was a giant leap forward.

In America, we have made incredible progress in shaping a culture that more and more seeks to live out the ultimate aim laid out by our young nation’s founding documents that “all men are created equal” (the context of that statement being “all humankind”).

We celebrate the historic strides that have been made towards equality of race and sex. Instead of continuing to progress in a positive way as a society, we have taken a regressive step backward through the recent policies set forth by leaders of collegiate-level athletics surrounding transgender athletes.

When the NCAA allowed Lia Thomas (born a biological male who is transitioning to a transgender female) to compete against biological females in the national collegiate swimming championships, they failed all women. Thomas is a student-athlete with XY chromosomes, who competed in male athletics up until a couple of seasons ago. This change allowed Thomas to catapult from the #462 ranking on the men’s side to the #1 ranking for women overnight!

Long-standing female titles and records are being smashed and erased from the books. This is a clear example of the biological advantage that men have in sports. Regardless of how well-meaning the coaches, leaders, and administrators around Thomas may be, the reality of this clear displacement of one biological reality over another is erasing the hard-fought advancements of female athletics.

Today, we owe every woman who fought tooth and nail for Title IX an apology.

All students deserve dignity and respect. However, competitive athletics is not the appropriate place for exploring gender issues that transcend biological reality.

The consistent medical and scientific accuracies and consensus remain true that there are distinct biological differences in the physical characteristics of people born male (with XY chromosomes) and female (with XX chromosomes). The physiological differences cannot be ignored when considering allowing biological males to compete against biological females in sports. According to Duke’s Center for Sports Law and Policy, “there is an average 10-12% performance gap between elite males and elite females” in sports. Every indicator that affects athletic performance — strength, speed, and endurance — favors biological men.

Sometimes there are attempts to preserve a level playing field by policies such as requiring testosterone suppressants in the months or years leading up to competition. What these policies do not account for is the clear physical advantages brought on by the surge of testosterone during male puberty.

The bottom line is this: Biological male bodies (even after surgeries and hormone suppression therapy) have a proven unfair advantage over biological females. This results in awards, scholarships, and the pride and accomplishment of athletic achievement being stripped away from well-deserving women.

The great majority of fathers and mothers, and most athletes themselves, agree on this appropriate division of athletics based on biology— not ideology. This distinction must be preserved for the continued empowerment of women. This is not only an affirmation of science but common sense as well.

In addition to the degradation of equality in athletic competitions themselves, we cannot ignore the psychological concerns that are arising for female athletes. The female teammates of Thomas have expressed being very uncomfortable with the presence of a teammate with male genitalia in their locker room. In order to protect the privacy, safety, and personal bodily integrity of girls of all ages, women’s locker rooms need to remain for biological females only (regardless of how someone may identify sexually). 

Olympians, coaches, and championship swimmers are speaking out to demand that the NCAA protect women athletes. Virginia Tech swimmer Reka Gregory and University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines both competed against Thomas were courageous and spoke against this and suffered consequences. A group of the University of Arizona Alumnae sent an open letter to the NCAA. Notable signers include Frank Busch, six-time NCAA Coach of the Year who also served as the USA National Team Director and coached Olympic Teams in 2004 and 2008, and 36 other female swimmers who either competed in national conferences, the NCAA, and/or the Olympics.

Some people aren’t waiting for the NCAA to take action. States all across the country are taking legislative action to protect women’s sports at all levels. Most recently, Governor DeSantis of Florida and Governor Stitt of Oklahoma signed similar bills into law. Governor Stitt signed the “Save Women’s Sports Act” into law Wednesday to prevent biological men from competing in women’s sports. He stated,

"We’re ensuring a level playing field for female athletes who work hard, who train hard, who are committed to their team, who have dreams to be #1 in their sport, who deserve a fair competition. So how is it fair for female track athletes or swimmers who have been training since they were 12-years-old to lose in a high school competition to a biological male? It’s not; it’s simply not fair. And it will not happen in the state of Oklahoma."

To the commissioners and leaders of athletic programs and competitions, we need to structure athletic competition in a way that honors biological reality. We must demand that the NCAA and every other sport association take action to end the presence of biological males in women’s sports. And if there is a growing interest in transgender athletics, perhaps an appropriate solution is to create a third category for competitions: male athletics, female athletics, transgender athletics.

Until then, there appears to be only one option: Continue to speak out against unfair competition and refuse to compete. Otherwise, we will witness the death of equality, fairness, and opportunity in female sports. The answer is to stand up and speak out regardless of the consequences.

Most people don’t say anything because they fear being attacked and mislabeled, silenced, canceled, or fired. Living courageously today is going to cost something. The answer is to stand up for what is right.

I am proud to watch my daughter compete in lacrosse. If she was asked to compete against a biological male, for her physical safety as well as the preservation of her aspirations to succeed in women’s sports, I would strongly advise her to respectfully speak up to her coaches and community and only participate in a fair competition where biological reality is enforced. I have yet to meet a parent who disagrees.

NOTE: As of the writing of this article, the Biden Administration is drafting language to include transgender males and females in the Title IX language to effectively make it illegal for State Laws to prohibit biological men from competing against biological women. At the same time, athletes are continuing to speak out against unfair competition and more athletic governing bodies are disqualifying biologically male competitors from women’s sports.