The women of the Roanoke College swim team have spoken out about their months of opposition to the school’s decision to allow a transgender athlete to join their team. The women ultimately won this battle, but they said the war against women’s sports continues and it’s time the NCAA stood up for them instead of the radical trans agenda.
Members of the women’s swim team and their parents and supporters attended an Oct. 5 school meeting to advocate for fairness. They demanded that the school and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the national body that governs college sports, finally come forward to protect women’s sports from the incursion of trans athletes.
“My feelings, our team’s feelings and comfort were blatantly ignored and only one athlete was prioritized. I felt unheard and unseen. Our comfort was undervalued and discarded,” Roanoke College swim team captain Kate Pearson said during the meeting, according to WFXR-TV.
The women were there to speak up for women across the country who are losing their opportunities as a tidal wave of men who were mediocre athletes while playing as men but became instant stars after claiming to have “transitioned” into women have washed over women’s college sports in the last few years.
The meeting comes on the heels of a decision made by college officials to allow a student to swim on the women’s team after spending two years as an unexceptional swimmer on the men’s team. The student ultimately decided not to join the team, even though the school said he could, because of the stiff opposition to his participation presented by the women on the Roanoke swim team.
Their opposition is all about fairness, the women say.
“Fairness in sport includes opportunities for women and girls to participate in sports and physical education on a single-sex basis,” Kara Dansky, President of the U.S. Chapter Women’s Declaration International, said from the speaker’s dais.
Parents were also on hand to support the women.
“Young women must know that they can have a safe, fair, and equal playing field. They must know that their dreams and hard work are not dismissible simply because they are girls,” a parent exclaimed.
Another attendee insisted that the NCAA needs to step up and put an end to trans “women” being allowed to compete as women.
“The NCAA should say the buck stops here, establishing NCAA guidelines that ensure no female athlete will have to endure this again,” Adrianna McLambe, a spokeswoman for Independent Women’s Forum, exclaimed.
For its part, the college said it did not care what the women or their parents had to say. The school’s priority was in protecting dangerous transgender athletes.
Roanoke College President Frank Shushok Jr., for instance, insisted that the decision to allow the trans swimmer to compete on the women’s team was the right one.
“In making this decision, the focus of senior administration and the board of trustees was on maintaining fairness in competition and protecting the integrity of all athletics at Roanoke College,” Shushok said. “We remain committed to supporting our LGBTQ+ community and our student-athletes, all of whom are valued members of our vibrant community.”
But Lily Mullen, another one of the Roanoke swim team captains, said that it was entirely unfair to allow someone with a male body to swim against real women because the male body is simply stronger and built more powerfully than the female body.
“Many tears and the will to train to race a swimmer who has an advantage in the water that our bodies may never possess,” Mullins said, according to WSET-TV.
Roanoke student Susanna Price added, “Women’s sports are separate from men’s sports for a reason. We are not the same, but we both deserve to be equally respected.”
Soooooo proud to stand with @RoanokeCollege women’s swim team today as they held a press conference calling for the NCAA, their university, and lawmakers to implement policies to protect women’s sports!!
How many more girls have to lose out on opportunities for us to say “NO”? pic.twitter.com/h7nRig99qK
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 5, 2023
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, a past NCAA champion and now an activist for women’s sports, was also on hand and joined the Roanoke students to say that it should not take “bravery” for women to be able to save their spaces.
“It shouldn’t have to take bravery and fair treatment to speak up for the fair treatment of women and girls, and if leaders cannot find it within themselves to do that then we need different leaders,” Gaines said.
Men have been dominating many women’s sports from swimming, to weight lifting, to cycling and more, as sports agencies and colleges bow to the radical transgender agenda. But women are finally beginning to speak out against this invasion of their spaces by men posing as women, who are taking opportunities away from natural-born women all across the world.
Women who have dedicated their lives to excelling at their sport are being blown out by men who suddenly decided they are women. And many are finally getting fed up.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
