{"id":658058,"date":"2026-08-26T12:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=658058"},"modified":"2026-08-26T12:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:31:20","slug":"olympic-legend-launches-petition-demanding-wnba-protect-womens-basketball-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=658058","title":{"rendered":"Olympic legend launches petition demanding WNBA protect women\u2019s basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nancy Hogshead, three-time Olympic gold medalist, is throwing her weight behind the fight for women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

The Olympic-level swimmer recently launched a petition urging the WNBA<\/a> 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 \u201clegal advocacy for girls and women in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen 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\u2026 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 \u2013 without biological males,\u201d the Change.org petition reads. \u201cI am calling on the WNBA to explicitly clarify that \u2018woman\u2019 means female for eligibility purposes, and to protect fair and safe competition for female athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the amount of discussion around gender, gender identity and transgenderism, Hogshead says that the issue is actually quite simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019s sports advocates have worked over decades to create and provide,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

There are fundamental differences between biological men and biological women that require separation of sports leagues by gender, she continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental reason for separate categories in women\u2019s 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,\u201d Hogshead explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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 \u2013 including age, weight, equipment, and drug testing,\u201d she pointed out. \u201cThe female category should be enforced through sex screening, as the Women\u2019s Tennis Association, another all-female professional league, now does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition currently has 14,606 verified signatures at the time of posting, showing just how many people believe that women\u2019s sports should be protected.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy Hogshead, three-time Olympic gold medalist, is throwing her weight behind the fight for women\u2019s 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… Continue reading Olympic legend launches petition demanding WNBA protect women\u2019s basketball<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":658039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=658058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/658039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=658058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=658058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=658058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}