I do not follow sports very closely, at most checking scores, standings, and maybe watching important games, and follow women's sports even less so.
But here's something I found worth discussing in the world of women's sports:
With South Carolina advancing to face Iowa in the women's college basketball national championship, a whole lot of new Hawkeyes fans were probably born recently.
Last night, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley held a post-game press conference after her team beat the NC State Wolfpack out of the Final Four.
OutKick's Dan Zaksheske asked Coach Staley how she felt about transgender athletes, meaning dudes, playing women's sports.
"I'm of the opinion of, if you're a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That's my opinion. You want me to go deeper?" Staley answered.
She even acknowledged her answer was controversial when Zaksheske repeated the question more bluntly, saying, "That's the question you want to ask, I'll give you that. Yes, yes. So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I'm okay with that. I really am."
I am sure this was not the intention, but if I were one of the girls on the team I'd feel kind of insulted. They've come all this way (as actual, biological females) to reach another shot at the national title, and then your coach says, "Yeah, I would have no problem with men playing on or against my team."
Former University of Kentucky swimmer and activist Riley Gaines pointed this out in response to Staley's comments, saying men's basketball and women's basketball are practically two different games, and sarcastically asked if Staley would be fine with boxers of different weight classes going toe to toe or Olympic athletes competing in the Paralympics:
Dawn Staley knows perfectly well that men's basketball is a totally different sport than women's basketball
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 6, 2024
That's obvious by the speed of the game, the size of the ball, the sheer amount of layups compared to dunks when a player gets a fast break https://t.co/uUgLpxIDbo
I wonder if Dawn Staley also supports 18u playing with 12u, heavyweights fighting the featherweights, or olympians competing in the Paralympics.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 6, 2024
✨so brave of her!✨ https://t.co/PBZPcqLNzt
Besides, it's not like we've been seeing all sorts of problems that come with biological males playing against women in sports, on and off the field/court.
Back in February, Lowell Collegiate Charter School up in Massachusetts had to forfeit a game because a 6'2" bearded kid on the KIPP Academy team was playing against actual girls and injured three of Lowell's players.
Yeah, that may be high school level, but imagine what college-level or professional athletes can do to women in the same age bracket. Actually, you don't need to, because we have an example in Fallon Fox, who literally cracked at least one woman's skull in a mixed martial arts match, and openly bragged about how much he enjoyed beating "TERFS" in the ring.
And that's not even touching upon how uncomfortable a lot of girls are when in the locker room with a dude present, as over a dozen female athletes recently filed a great big lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for enabling men in women's sports.
I may be a UCF grad from a Seminoles family, but consider me a Hawkeyes fan this weekend.
