Nancy Hogshead, three-time Olympic gold medalist, is throwing her weight behind the fight for women’s sports.
The Olympic-level swimmer recently launched a petition urging the WNBA to ensure that female basketball players have a level playing field by restricting gender eligibility to participate in the league. Now serving as a civil rights lawyer, she is also the founder of Champion Women, which seeks to provide “legal advocacy for girls and women in sports.”
“Women train, sacrifice, compete, and fight unimaginably hard for the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of their sport. As a three-time Olympic gold medalist, I understand that my athletic career was made possible because women had a dedicated category to compete… and win. The athletes in the WNBA deserve to know that when they step onto the court, they will be competing on a level playing field – without biological males,” the Change.org petition reads. “I am calling on the WNBA to explicitly clarify that ‘woman’ means female for eligibility purposes, and to protect fair and safe competition for female athletes.”
Despite the amount of discussion around gender, gender identity and transgenderism, Hogshead says that the issue is actually quite simple.
“The issue is not complicated. The WNBA exists for women and their fans. Biological female athletes deserve clear rules that ensure fair competition and uphold the opportunities that women’s sports advocates have worked over decades to create and provide,” she writes.
There are fundamental differences between biological men and biological women that require separation of sports leagues by gender, she continues.
“The fundamental reason for separate categories in women’s sports is obvious: biological differences lead to significant male/female disparities in strength, speed, power, and other physical traits that are crucial at the highest levels of competition. Acknowledging these realities is not a mark of disrespect for women. We are designed perfectly, on a different developmental pathway from men,” Hogshead explains.
“We urge the WNBA to restrict eligibility to biological women who have been female since birth. This is consistent with the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, World Aquatics, and World Athletics, and is consistent with other sport categories that are strictly enforced – including age, weight, equipment, and drug testing,” she pointed out. “The female category should be enforced through sex screening, as the Women’s Tennis Association, another all-female professional league, now does.”
The petition currently has 14,606 verified signatures at the time of posting, showing just how many people believe that women’s sports should be protected.
